Splitting the 'Wicked' movie into two parts is dumb and will fail
by Chris Peterson, OnStage Blog Founder
Yesterday, director Jon M. Chu announced on social media that the upcoming ‘Wicked’ movie will be split into two installments with the first coming out in 2024 and the second a year later. Given the combination that the musical itself is shorter than three hours and the track record of movie musicals at the box office, this decision is dumb and will ultimately fail.
The reason behind the change was to ensure the story was told in its entirety. “Here’s what happened,” Chu began in his announcement posted to social media. “As we prepared this production over the last year, it became increasingly clear that it would be impossible to wrestle the story of WICKED into a single film without doing some real damage to it. As we tried to cut songs or trim characters, those decisions began to feel like fatal compromises to the source material that has entertained us all for so many years.”
If I was to take Chu at his word, his statement makes no sense and tells me that it’s not the real reason behind the change. The fact that a musical that is 2 hours and 45 minutes on stage is somehow too much for one movie is downright laughable. Especially considering other musicals such as ‘Les Misérables’ and ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ were adapted into one movie and almost mirrored their on stage running times.
It’s also confusing as to what they were considering cutting from the musical. The show itself only has 21 songs and some of them are very short ("Something Bad", "Dear Old Shiz", "A Sentimental Man"). And what characters were they considering trimming? I’ve seen the show multiple times, I don’t remember thinking that what would really help a movie adaptation is if we had less Boq or Nessarose.
Chu mentioning all of this in his statement made me think, “Do they know what they’re doing?”
I’m assuming part one will end with the end of act one with “Defying Gravity”. The problem with the plan is that act two of the show isn’t the stronger half, so what does that mean for a second movie?
It doesn’t take an insider to assume that the decision for all of this is money. Universal wants to get as much as they can out of their crown jewel from their theatrical department(even though the Broadway production has been profitable for over a decade). The idea of having two films rather than one is that more money will be earned at the box office. But given the track record of movie musical adaptations, the chances of that working are slim.
Not since 2008’s ‘Mamma Mia’ has a movie musical had a strong opening box office weekend. The most recent adaptations such as ‘Cats’ and ‘West Side Story’ all failed. And even Chu’s own ‘In The Heights’(which I loved) bombed at the box office. So what hope is there that a ‘Wicked’ movie was going to do well at the box office, to begin with, now there are going to be two of them? I don’t see this plan working at all.
But as a massive fan of the show, I’ll be the happiest person alive if I’m wrong.