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The highest-grossing Broadway musical movie of all time, Wicked minted a great first seven days on Premium VOD with $70 million, Universal reported Thursday. This is after the movie directed by Jon M. Chu and starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande landed in homes December 31.
In the first day alone, Wicked yielded $26M in Premium EST and Premium VOD sales.
That amount ranks as the biggest Day 1 and first week Universal has seen for any theatrical title with a premium release. The total is twice as high as Universal’s next-largest Day 1 for a theatrically released title, which was Illumination/Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros Movie.
Universal’s largest first week on PVOD for a theatrical release prior to Wicked made $44M, and Wicked still has 2 1/2 months with an exclusive premium home entertainment window before it goes to NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service. The studio expects a considerable amount of additional sales from this point forward.
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Wicked was on a 40-day theatrical window before hitting PVOD.
Universal releases its larger tentpole titles in the home after their fifth theatrical weekend, which in the case of Wicked would have meant Tuesday, December 24. The studio decided to hold it back another week and turn Wicked into a New Year’s Eve event for families, and generated solid word of mouth for the PVOD release after its December 26 announcement via social, digital and TV promotion including a Rose Parade float.
In the weekend following its release on PVOD, Wicked eased 50% at the domestic weekend box office with a $9.98M take. The Golden Globe-winning movie currently counts $453 million at the domestic box office and $686 million worldwide.
Beginning in 2020, Universal Filmed Entertainment Group set an industry precedent in formalizing a PVOD window for consumers to watch first-run movies in the home. Since then, PVOD has become an integral component of UFEG releases — inclusive of movies from Universal Pictures, Focus Features and DreamWorks Animation — and has accounted for more than $1.5 billion in consumer spend to date.
Universal is offering Wicked to consumers in the home at a $30 price point for Premium EST (digital ownership) and $20 for PVOD (digital rental), which includes the original film and the sing-along versions.