By Universal officially opened the first of its two “Wicked” films today and the film is on track to be a box-office juggernaut, something that will have the studio releaved after the amount spent on it.
Puck News reports that Universal has spent $350 million on both movies combined, the studio’s largest-ever up-front investment in a project.
That’s just the production budget too, and not the marketing budget for the films which will be sizeable given the huge global promotional push over the past few weeks and months.
The first film is on track to make $165-200 million worldwide in its opening weekend alone, and could well push the entire project into profit if it has legs – meaning earnings from the second film will simply add to the studio’s pockets.
The lavish two-part fantasy-musical will open its second entry a year from now, adapting the back half of the stage musical. Whether it will be met with as rapturous a response as the first has been is not clear.
Further box-office information regarding the film will be reported on throughout the weekend. Stay tuned.
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