Wait, should I go see WICKED?
Manish Mathur
SaaS B2B Marketer | MBA Graduate 2023 | Marketing | Partnerships | Growth | Content | Writer & Editor | Analytical, Creative, Strategic
I love the 1939 movie THE WIZARD OF OZ. I went through.a major Ariana Grande phase back in 2017. Cynthia Erivo brought the house down when I saw her live on Broadway in The Color Purple. Jon M. Chu made one of the best modern rom-coms with CRAZY RICH ASIANS. The novel Wicked is an incredible read, and its stage adaptation has captured imaginations for decades.
With all this pedigree, why I am so on the fence about the upcoming movie adaptation? Part of the reason is that the ads and trailers were not inspiring. The trailer looks overly washed out, especially compared to the defining Technicolor of the 1939 Judy Garland movie. The first few trailers hid that the movie is a musical, which is alarmingly common. Even when Grande and Erivo recreated the iconic Broadway poster, the effort felt half-baked and led to some minor controversy.
Early reports from screenings have been really positive. The reviews should be coming out later this month, but so far the early reactions are looking good. I have a few concerns. For one thing, I'm nervous that a world as bright and vivid as Oz is going to look dark and overly backlit. I'm willing to believe that the movie plays better as a whole than the marketing showed. I know that marketing can often be misleading or misrepresenting of the final product.
Early box office tracking for WICKED is remarkably strong. I could see WICKED being a major holiday hit, as it targets families and women. That's a demographic that doesn't get served all that much, but, as we saw with BARBIE last year, will show up when they want to. The film is programmed alongside Ridley Scott's long-awaited GLADIATOR sequel starring Denzel Washington and Paul Mescal. So perhaps we will see a Barbenheimer moment where two disparate films will help each other succeed more than they would separately.
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WICKED is slated to be a part 1 of a two-part movie. I'm not sure how successful it will be to split the musical into two movies, when the two most popular songs are in the first half ("Defying Gravity" and "Popular"). This trend of two-part movies started with HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS back in 2010 and 2011, with TWILIGHT and THE HUNGER GAMES following suit soon after. But the tactic isn't quite popular, and for WICKED I'm not sure how that will go. The novel I must say is a dense tome, and perhaps there is room for a more full adaptation of the source material.
I have no tangible reason why I might be so hesitant to see WICKED, or rather any tangible reason I would actively avoid it. The musical numbers at least will performed well; Ariana Grande seems like she was practicing for this role her whole career and Cynthia Erivo's "Defying Gravity" will sure be a major highlight of the film.
WICKED comes out right before Thanksgiving on November 22nd. I might as well convince my family to go during the Thanksgiving holiday. I am sure the musical will be a big-screen spectacle, with beautiful performances and dazzling music. My concerns over the look of the movie might not hold true, and we could have a modern fantasy blockbuster success. Time will tell!