Wicked

Wicked (2024) is the long-awaited film adaptation of Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman's iconic Broadway musical — one of the most beloved stage productions in history with over 100 million audience members worldwide since 2003. Directed by Jon M. Chu and starring Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda, the film covers Part One of the story: how two very different young women at Shiz University forge an unlikely friendship before the events of The Wizard of Oz. Released November 22, 2024, Wicked became the highest-grossing film musical of all time, surpassing Mamma Mia!. It opened to $114 million in the United States and over $200 million globally in its opening weekend — numbers that stunned even the most optimistic studio projections. Cynthia Erivo's Elphaba — green-skinned, misunderstood, and furiously talented — is a performance that critics immediately began comparing to Judy Garland's Dorothy and Barbra Streisand's Funny Girl in terms of its cultural weight. Ariana Grande's Glinda is a comic masterclass: self-absorbed, luminously blonde, and secretly searching for meaning behind the popularity she has carefully constructed. Jon M. Chu shot Wicked on practical sets at Arborfield Studios in England, building the entire world of Oz — from Shiz University to the Emerald City skyline — as tangible, textured environments. The flying sequences were choreographed across multiple months to ensure the physicality of the performances came through in every frame. The film ends on a deliberate cliffhanger, setting up Wicked: For Good — Part Two, scheduled for November 2025.