‘Wicked’ Becomes Top-Grossing Film Adaptation of a Broadway Musical

UPDATE (Jan. 5): Wicked just keeps adding to its record-setting tally at the boxoffice. As of Jan. 5, it has grossed $681.3 million worldwide. The musical is likely to keep adding to its tally, too, with Oscar nominations due on Jan. 17 and the Oscar telecast set for March 2.

PREVIOUSLY (Dec. 29): It’s official: Wicked has pulled ahead of Mamma Mia! to become the top-grossing film based on a Broadway musical. Wicked has grossed $634.4 million worldwide since it opened on Nov. 22. Mamma Mia! grossed $611.5 million worldwide following its release in June 2008.

Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo star in Wicked, which was directed by Jon M. Chu, whose hit-studded résumé includes a previous film adaptation of a Broadway musical, the 2021 movie version of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s breakout hit In the Heights.

Seven film adaptations of Broadway musicals appear on Box Office Mojo’s list of the top 1,000 films in terms of their lifetime worldwide grosses. That counts Mamma Mia!, a film adaptation of the 2001 stage musical built around ABBA music, but not its Cher-featuring sequel Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again, on the grounds that the latter was really just a sequel to a hit movie. (The sequel did astonishingly well, with a worldwide gross of $395.6 million.) Of course, not all sequels are guaranteed to become box-office successes. Grease is here, but its 1982 sequel, Grease 2, which grossed just $15 million worldwide, didn’t come close.

Wicked: For Good, previously referred to by the generic title Wicked Part Two, is due for release on Nov. 21, 2025. Will it follow its predecessor to box-office glory? If it does, Chu will join Rob Marshall as the only director with two films on this list; Marshall directed both Chicago and Into the Woods.

You might surmise that both Wicked and Mamma Mia! must have won the Tony for best musical when they played on Broadway. Actually, neither one did. Wicked lost to Avenue Q in 2004. Mamma Mia! lost to Thoroughly Modern Millie in 2002.

Only two of the seven musical-to-film transfers on this list won the Tony for best musical when they played on Broadway. Les Misérables won in 1987. Hairspray won in 2003. Of the other three, Grease lost in 1972 to Two Gentlemen of Verona, Chicago lost in 1976 to A Chorus Line. Into the Woods lost in 1988 to The Phantom of the Opera.

One disclaimer about this list right at the top: You can’t easily compare box-office grosses of films from different eras. The biggest blockbusters of earlier eras simply can’t match the grosses of today’s hits. (It’s not just your imagination that ticket prices are much higher than they used to be.) The Sound of Music has grossed $159.5 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo — not enough to make their list of 1,000 top-grossing films. But that 1965 adaptation of the 1959 Broadway musical is one of the biggest hits in film history.

Other film adaptations of Broadway musicals that have grossed more than $50 million worldwide, but not enough to make the list, include Dreamgirls ($155.5 million), the 2021 version of West Side Story ($76 million), My Fair Lady ($72.7 million) and Funny Girl ($52.2 million).

Here are the seven top-grossing film adaptations of Broadway musicals in terms of lifetime worldwide grosses.