Wicked‘s impressive domestic box office performance looks even better when it is compared to the other movies on the chart. The 2024 movie was adapted from the first act of the smash hit 2003 Broadway musical of the same name, which was written by Winnie Holzman with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz. A sequel adapting the second act is set to debut in theaters in November 2025. The movie’s star-studded cast includes Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande-Butera, Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Bowen Yang, Marissa Bode, Peter Dinklage, Michelle Yeoh, and Jeff Goldblum. In addition to the movie’s critical reception, the Wicked box office has broken many records. This includes outgrossing 1978’s Grease to become the highest-grossing Broadway musical adaptation of all time in North America. After opening with a whopping $112.5 million, the movie has climbed to a gross of $333.5 million at the domestic box office which, along with an international gross of $135.5 million, brought its worldwide total to $469 million ahead of its fourth weekend in theaters.

Wicked Is The Only Non-Sequel In The Top 10 At The 2024 Domestic Box Office

The Chart Is Dominated By Direct Sequels

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The Wicked movie has become such a theatrical success that it has become the No. 4 highest-grossing movie of the year at the domestic box office. Its commercial reception has made it an outlier among the other top hits of the year, as it is the only movie on the domestic chart that is not a direct sequel to another movie. Below, see a breakdown of the Top 10 movies at the domestic box office as of Wednesday, December 11:

#1
Inside Out 2
$652.9 million

#2
Deadpool & Wolverine
$636.7 million

#3
Despicable Me 4
$361 million

#4
Wicked
$333.5 million

#5
Moana 2
$308.6 million

#6
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
$294.1 million

#7

#8
Twisters
$267.8 million

#9
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
$196.3 million

#10
Kung Fu Panda 4
$193.6 million

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2024 is a year that has been overwhelmingly dominated by sequels, whether they be belated follow-ups to classics like 1988’s Beetlejuice and 1996’s Twister, or continuations of more contemporary movies including 2021’s Godzilla vs. Kong, 2016’s Moana, and 2021’s Dune. In fact, the No. 2 movie of the year, which is the Marvel Cinematic Universe movie Deadpool & Wolverine is a direct sequel to both 2018’s Deadpool 2 and 2017’s Logan in addition to being a part of the overarching MCU and X-Men franchises.

Wicked Might Not Be A Sequel, But Its Box Office Success Is Still Thanks To IP

It Has A Complicated Adaptation History

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While Wicked is the only non-sequel, it is not exempt from being an IP property. In fact, it is part of a long chain of adaptations. In addition to adapting a hit musical in the first place, the original Broadway show was itself an adaptation of the 1995 Gregory Maguire novel of the same name. That novel was inspired by the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, which in turn was adapted from the 1900 L. Frank Baum novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, giving the 2024 movie an even deeper IP history than anything else in the Top 10.