‘Wicked: For Good’ rules UK-Ireland box office with £17.8m for biggest opening since ‘Barbie’

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Wicked: For Good conjured up a tremendous £17.8m three-day opening at the UK-Ireland box office – the biggest opening weekend since the £18.5m of Barbie in July 2023.

Opening in 741 locations, the film took a huge £24,121 location average. It has £18.9m including previews from Thursday, November 20.

The For Good opening is 30% up on the start of Wicked from November last year, at an already-impressive £13.7m.

The film brought in more than £5.5m on each day of the weekend, with £5.5m on Friday – the biggest opening day ever for a live-action musical; £6.6m on Saturday – the biggest opening Saturday of the year; and £5.7m on Sunday.

Other records included the biggest opening ever for a stage musical adaptation, the biggest three-day November opening of all-time, and Universal’s second-biggest three-day opening of all time in the territory, behind only 2021’s No Time To Die (£21m).

It brought in 6% of its takings through Imax – ahead of the Wicked figure, and making For Good  the first PG film to open over £1m in the territory.

Looking ahead, for films that opened in a similar range, Barbie  ended on a huge £95.7m, which may be beyond For Good as a sequel. More achievable targets may be Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows: Part 1  (opened: £18.3m; closed: £52.6m) and Avengers: Age Of Ultron  (opened: £18.3m; closed: £48.3m).

Wicked: For Good dominated the chart with a huge 80% of the total box office. It took more than 15 times the second-ranked film – Lionsgate’s magic thriller Now You See Me: Now You Don’t. That title posted an admirable hold in the face of Wicked -mania, dropping 45% with £1.1m, and is up to £4.9m. It should overtake the £6.4m of 2016’s Now You See Me 2 before the end of its run; but the £11.2m of Now You See Me will likely be beyond it.

Edgar Wright’s The Running Man fell 61% across its second weekend for Paramount, with £655,000 taking it to £3.8m total.

Nuremberg  starring Russell Crowe added £490,466 on its second session for Sky Cinema, distributed by Studiocanal. This drop of 43% brought the film just beyond the £2m mark.

Disney made it five different distributors in the top five, with Predator: Badlands adding £375,131 – a 59% fall across its third weekend which brought it beyond the £5m mark.

Takings for the top five shot up a massive 225%, inspired by Wicked: For Good; although are still down 14% on the equivalent weekend from last year, when the first Wicked had Gladiator II  and Paddington In Peru for company. Exhibitors will need For Good to balance with Disney’s Zootropolis 2 from November 28 to achieve similar results.

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Nicholas Hytner’s The Choral took a 65% hit on its third weekend for Sony, with £209,388 taking it to £3.4m total.

Gurinder Chadha’s family comedy Christmas Karma dropped 61% on its second weekend, with £192,368. The True Brit Entertainment release has £856,554 in total, and will look to hold well as the Christmas season intensifies.

Paramount family animation A Paw Patrol Christmas held better than most titles, falling just 29% across its third session. It added £183,000, and is up to £769,000 – the fifth highest-grossing Paw Patrol release to date.

Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution took a bigger hit than most, falling 85% on its second weekend with £123,952. The Sony anime is up to £1.2m in total, closing in on the £1.5m total of 2022’s Jujutsu Kaisen 0.

Yorgos Lanthimos’s Bugonia added £94,951 on its fourth session – a 63% drop roughly in line with market averages, that brought the film to £2.9m total. It will finish as the director’s third-highest-grossing film, behind The Favourite  (£17m) and Poor Things  (£7.6m).

Having already become the highest-grossing Gujarati film on its opening weekend, Indian title Laalo added £86,993 on its second session – a drop of just 3%, an astonishing hold in the context of Wicked: For Good. The Bakrania Media release is up to £233,687.

Romantic drama Regretting You posted a 79% drop on its fifth weekend with £80,000, and has a respectable £6.2m cume for Paramount.

Sony opened Jalmari Helander’s action thriller Sisu: Road To Revenge to £73,577 from 276 sites at a £267 average. Including previews, the film has £74,588 – down on the £144,795 start of the 2023 first film.

CBeebies Panto 2025: Cinderella brought in £61,859 for Vue Lumière – ahead of the £39,073 opening of CBeebies Panto 2024: Beauty And The Beast from last year.

Trafalgar Releasing’s event cinema title Arabella – Met Opera 2025 took £55,986 on Saturday and Sunday alone, from 75 cinemas at a £746 average. It has 120 further screenings booked in for the start of this week.

Lynne Ramsay’s Cannes Competition entry Die My Love added £54,087 on its third weekend for Mubi - a 66% drop that brought it to £924,405 in total.

Kids’ title Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie pulled a 69% drop on its sixth weekend in cinemas for Universal, with £53,793 taking the film to £5.9m total.

Kirk Jones’s UK indie drama I Swear dropped 67% on its seventh weekend in cinemas for Studiocanal with £37,947, and has an excellent running total just shy of £6m.

Paul Thomas Anderson’s revolutionary thriller One Battle After Another is still in cinemas ahead of its awards run for Warner Bros. It added £25,128 on its ninth session – a 66% drop that brought it to £11.8m total.

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere starring Jeremy Allen White added £24,029 on its fifth weekend for Disney – a 78% drop that brought it to £3.9m total.

Dylan Southern’s The Thing With Feathers started with £22,786 for Vue Lumière, from 120 sites at at £190 average. Including previews, the film – starring Benedict Cumberbatch – has £56,180.

Annemarie Jacir’s Palestine 36 added £16,069 to its total on a fourth weekend for Curzon. The historical drama has a decent £317,310 in total.

Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s The Ice Tower starring Marion Cotillard and Clara Pacini opened to £11,668 for BFI Distribution, with final figures still to come. The gross including BFI London Film Festival and preview screenings is £28,793.

Indian historical drama 120 Bahadur opened to £9,579 for AA Films UK, from 29 sites at a £330 location average.

Chainsaw Man: The Movie – Reze Arc is switching off its tool with £9,388 on its fifth weekend for Sony, and £2.7m in total.

UK rave scene thriller Game took £8,739 including previews for Verve Pictures.

Aoife Kelleher’s Irish motherhood documentary Testimony started with £3,994 from 15 sites for Miracle, Underground and Rocliffe, with final figures still to come.

Universal’s Black Phone 2 is putting the receiver down after a sixth weekend in cinemas, with £3,584 bringing it to £3.8m, behind the £4.7m of the 2022 first film.

• Wicked: For Good soars to $226m at global box office including $76m international bow