Why Wicked: For Good Should Have Been Delayed
It’s hard not to wonder if Wicked: For Good could have benefited from a longer break. Delaying the project for another year could have allowed for anticipation to build organically, while “holding space” for audiences to want to consume all of that promotional content again without feeling deja vu.
It’s possible that the team behind Wicked is using the success of The Lord of the Rings as a blueprint. That trilogy was shot simultaneously and released to the general public, one film at a time, over three consecutive years. The back-to-back release cycles did not hurt the trilogy’s box office receipts or its awards chances. In fact, the final entry, The Return of the King, grossed over $180 million more than The Two Towers. The Return of the King also won all 11 of its Oscar nominations, so its awards success increased as well.
That’s a lot for Wicked to live up to, especially in the digital age. Press tours looked a lot different in the early 2000s before advances in social media platforms and their respective algorithms. Now, there are countless avenues for a contemporary press tour beyond the standard festivals, talk shows, and industry screenings. Mind you, all of those still exist, but there are also TikTok trends, influencer partnerships, and even YouTube shows like “Hot Ones,” in which celebrities eat hot wings while talking about their latest project.
A strong publicity campaign will have its stars making all these necessary stops to drum up excitement and spread the word about their films. However, what more can Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande do after they already did the absolute most less than a year ago? Will lightning strike twice or will audiences tire of potentially obvious attempts to recreate similarly viral moments?
A break would have given both the film’s stars and its audience time to breathe and reset. Many successful sequels in both the commercial and awards spaces have benefited from some time away. Dune: Part II was even more well-received by the general public than the first film, which was released three years prior. A break can even help with awards strategies too. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was released four years after the first entry and managed to earn Marvel its first ever acting nomination for Angela Bassett.
Even this year, James Cameron will be releasing the third installment of his Avatar franchise three years after the last film. Production on Fire and Ash actually overlapped with production for the film’s second entry, The Way of Water, but Cameron still opted for a later release date. Part of that was due to the film’s extensive post-production and visual effects process, but the delay will likely be beneficial for audiences as well and will allow for the new film to feel like its own event.
It would be one thing if the press tour for the first half of Wicked wasn’t as big as it was, but the truth is that Universal overdid it. That inevitably hurts the new campaign, as it leaves the publicity machine with fewer options to pursue. On top of that, there is the widely held belief that the second half of the source material is simply not as strong as the first. Besides “For Good,” the songs in Act Two do not exactly hold the same power (or dare I say, space) as “Popular” and “Defying Gravity” do. A big part of the anticipation for the first film was the excitement for how those numbers would ultimately look and sound. Now that audiences have seen how the main highlights from the musical translated to the big screen, the interest in the musical numbers we have yet to see is not as widespread. You don’t hear people talking nearly as much about their excitement for songs like “Wonderful” or “As Long As You're Mine.”
Only time will tell if Wicked: For Good and its accompanying press tour will be received as favorably by the general public. It’s certainly too late for Universal to pivot to a later release date now, as that would raise eyebrows about the film’s quality and the studio’s belief in its potential. Still, it’s hard not to feel like the film’s release is starting off on the wrong foot. It might be too late to turn back now, but here’s hoping that Erivo and Grande aren’t going to be the ones assuming responsibility for the mistake of such a rushed repeat campaign.
via @RottenTomatoes