The hit 2024 musical movie ‘Wicked,’ the highest-grossing Broadway adaptation in film, garnered a remarkable $70 million in its first week of Premium VOD, according to a report by Universal on Thursday.

Directed by Jon M. Chu and featuring stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, the film debuted in homes on December 31.

On its initial release day, ‘Wicked’ achieved $26 million in sales from Premium Electronic Sell-Through (EST) and Premium VOD.

This represents a record-breaking start for Universal, marking the highest single-day and first-week earnings for any of their theatrically released titles on a premium platform. This figure is double the previous record set by Universal’s release of the Illumination/Nintendo's Super Mario Bros Movie.

Before ‘Wicked,’ the largest first-week PVOD earnings for a Universal theatrical release was $44 million. With an exclusive premium home entertainment window of two and a half months before transitioning to NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service, further substantial earnings are anticipated.

After a 40-day run in theaters, ‘Wicked’ moved to PVOD.

Universal typically releases major titles for home viewing after their fifth weekend in theaters. For ‘Wicked,’ this would have been December 24, but the studio chose to delay this by a week to align with New Year's Eve, enhancing its appeal through social, digital, and TV promotions, including a feature on a Rose Parade float.

The weekend after its PVOD release saw a 50% drop in its domestic box office revenue, bringing in $9.98 million. To date, the Golden Globe-winning film has amassed $453 million domestically and $686 million globally.

Starting in 2020, Universal Filmed Entertainment Group established a new industry standard by formally introducing a PVOD window, allowing first-run films to be viewed at home. This strategy has since become a core aspect of releases from Universal Pictures, Focus Features, and DreamWorks Animation, generating over $1.5 billion in consumer spending.

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