With a $150 million or more debut, “Wicked: For Good” hopes to be the biggest opening of 2025.

In the opening number of “Wicked: For Good,” Glinda sings the joyous song “Thank Goodness” to ease the fears of the residents of Oz. When the second part of the Broadway hit hits the big screen this weekend, movie theater owners will be humming a similar tune.

In its first weekend of release, “Wicked: For Good” is making between $150 million and $180 million from 4,000 North American cinemas. This is a heroic start following a miserable decline at the box office. Compared to April’s “A Minecraft Movie” ($162 million) and May’s “Lilo & Stitch” remake ($146 million), a debut on the upper end of that range would be the biggest launch of the year. “Wicked,” which debuted in 2024 and set a record for stage-to-screen adaptations with $112.5 million during the same pre-Thanksgiving period, is expected to be surpassed by the high-profile musical.

Universal, the studio behind “Wicked,” is proposing an estimate of $125 million or more for the second episode. It is a little more conservative because, before ticket sales plummeted to a still-spectacular $112.5 million, forecasts for the first movie were high, with some exhibitors anticipating above $130 million. However, because “For Good” is marketed as the must-see finale to Elphaba and Glinda’s epic voyage down the Yellow Brick Road and “Wicked” is a known entity this time around, box office forecasters are optimistic.

While Searchlight’s dramedy “Rental Family” and Sony’s gory action film “Sisu: Road to Revenge” attempt to counter-program against the pink-and-green musical, “Wicked: For Good” will dominate the domestic box office rankings. With 2,100 locations, “Sisu 2” hopes to make $3 million. These ticket sales are comparable to those of “Sisu,” which debuted at $3.3 million before reaching $7 million locally and $14 million worldwide in 2022. With 1,900 North American locations, “Rental Family,” which stars Brendan Fraser as a struggling actor who gets the not-so-plum job of playing stand-in parts for strangers in Japan, is also aiming for a low single-digit opening.

“Wicked: For Good,” directed by Jon M. Chu, tells the story of the second act of the play as Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) and the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) try to turn Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) into the Wicked Witch of the West. In the meantime, Ariana Grande, the green witch’s vivacious best friend, embraces her public role as Glinda the Good. “For Good” will undoubtedly be a huge hit at the movie office, but it is unclear if it will have the same longevity as the original. With $756 million worldwide, “Wicked” became the largest Broadway adaption ever. Positive word-of-mouth and the appealing soundtrack will probably encourage repeat business throughout the remainder of the year, just like in the first installment. However, compared to the lively first act of the musical, the second half of “Wicked” is more darker and lacks as many catchy tunes. The two-part spectacular was created by Universal for $300 million, not counting the enormous marketing expenditures.

Disney’s animated comedy “Zootopia 2,” which releases on November 26, and “Wicked: For Good” aim to cap off November on a high note. With these blockbusters aiming to surpass the record established over 2016 Turkey Day with $433 million across all films, including “Wicked: Part 1,” “Moana 2,” and “Gladiator II,” it is looking like a massive Thanksgiving for movie theaters.