MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo have been defying gravity since just before Thanksgiving.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DEFYING GRAVITY")
ARIANA GRANDE AND CYNTHIA ERIVO: (As Galinda and Elphaba, singing) You and I defying gravity.
KELLY: Well, especially at the box office - "Wicked" is the third-biggest hit of 2024, $430 million in ticket sales. In dollar terms, it is the most successful movie adaptation of a Broadway musical ever. Today, Universal Pictures is making it available for home viewing after just 40 days in the theaters. That was a surprise to me and also apparently to our film critic Bob Mondello. Hey, Bob.
BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE: It was indeed (laughter).
KELLY: Yeah. OK, so clearly, a lot of people are enjoying watching "Wicked." Why would the studio not make it available for everybody to watch from their sofa?
MONDELLO: Because it's going to kill ticket sales - the way the business works, the film's producers keep the lion's share of ticket money in the first few weeks. Theaters keep a bigger proportion later, and usually, that's a good balance. But if the audience disappears just as theaters are starting to keep more of the cash, theaters won't survive. Studios need them to be healthy. Box office success sets up other revenue streams like home video sales and rentals and cable and TV. A smash hit in theaters makes all the rest of it better.
KELLY: OK, so how is it supposed to work? Is there a formula for how long a movie should play in cinemas before we get it at home?
MONDELLO: Yeah, but it keeps changing. Back in the 1960s and '70s, it was literally years. "The Sound Of Music" opened in movie theaters in 1965, and its first TV broadcast was 11 years later in 1976.
KELLY: Wow.
MONDELLO: That was before VCRs were a big thing. Once there was cable TV and pay-per-view, the theatrical window got shorter. But by the 2000s, theater chains had gotten comfortable with a 90-day exclusivity window. And when studios tried to shorten that, the major theater chains started threatening not to play their movies. The pandemic changed all that. With theaters closed for months, studios had no choice but to offer their films in streaming and video-on-demand right away. Now there's a sliding system. Big films usually take about two months, and smaller films go quickly.
KELLY: Although "Wicked," as we noted, is anything but a small film. It is - how does the song go?
MONDELLO: (Singing) Popular (laughter).
KELLY: (Singing) Popular. So why the rush?
MONDELLO: Well, Christmas week is always good for family films - not just "Wicked" this year, but also "Mufasa" and "Sonic The Hedgehog" and "Moana." But studios know that when the kids go back to school, the midweek numbers for all those movies is going to - are just going to fall off a cliff. Last year, that's what happened with "Wonka." A week after the holidays, it was crickets in the theaters.
KELLY: Although today, I don't need to tell you, is New Year's Eve, so nobody's back in school. Are they doing this too soon, killing the golden goose?
MONDELLO: They're actually trying to hatch a new golden goose.
KELLY: (Laughter) OK.
MONDELLO: "Wicked" is just the first half of the story, remember. Its full title is "Wicked: Part I." While families are still together for the holidays, they're hoping to kickstart the home viewing cycle and set up the second half, "Wicked: For Good," and that opens next Thanksgiving. And we're going to have this exact same conversation then.
KELLY: That is the very wicked Bob Mondello.
MONDELLO: (Laughter) Why, thank you.
KELLY: Happy New Year, Bob.
MONDELLO: Happy New Year's to you.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DEFYING GRAVITY")
CYNTHIA ERIVO: (As Elphaba, singing) So if you care to find me, look to the western sky. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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