Wicked: For Good
Wicked: For Good
The sequel to Wicked is finally arriving on Friday, November 21, and as such, it may be confusing about how it already has 1,000+ Rotten Tomatoes audience reviews in, and zero critic ones.
This is largely part of the ability to watch the film early through Amazon Prime ticket sales, meaning you could have seen the film in select areas on Monday, November 17, instead, almost a full week early. And that’s where these sky-high scores come from. Wicked: For Good currently has a 98% Rotten Tomatoes audience score, one of the highest of any mainstream theatrical release of 2025.
I understand the catch here, that if you are excited enough to see Wicked: For Good days early by seeking out a special deal, you may be more prone to rate it highly as a superfan. That said, superfans are also hard to please.
We can also head over to the original Wicked from last year, which ended up with an 88% critic score and a still ultra-high 95% audience score, there with 25,000+ reviews in. So no, a 98% does not sound all that far off from what the final score could be in the end, even if we’re seeing 25x the reviews come in over time.
The first Wicked was a smash hit, earning $758 million at the global box office and racking up ten Academy Award nominations, where it won two of them. Here are those:
- Best Picture
- Best Actress (Cynthia Ervo)
- Best Supporting Actress (Ariana Grande)
- Best Costume Design (Won)
- Best Film Editing
- Best Makeup and Hairstyling
- Best Production Design (Won)
- Best Original Score
- Best Sound
- Best Visual Effects
Could Wicked: For Good match that? I don’t know, but another round of Oscar nominations is likely if the movie is as good as these early audiences claim it is. I’m curious if it will earn more or less at the box office this time around. I would guess a bit less, though sometimes sequels can blow past the original, it just depends. The original film had a huge split between domestic (62%) and international (38%), which is fairly unusual for most Hollywood blockbusters. However, US film exports have been scrutinized more closely lately. Still, this is even wider than the much discussed gap among superhero movies these days. It may depend on scale of release abroad, as well.
All signs are pointing to Wicked: For Good being another big win. Keep an eye on opening weekend numbers, as Wicked first opened with $112 million domestically.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.