The “Wicked” Marketing Team Deserves a Raise
The movie starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo hit theaters over Thanksgiving. Does it live up to all the fanfare?
by Eliana Rosen ★ DECEMBER 9, 2024
Design: Samantha Goldberg
The new Wicked movie graced our theaters on Nov. 22. It’s been almost impossible to escape the movie’s press tour; the red carpet premiere photos, crying cast interviews and seemingly never ending brand collaborations. The impressive marketing campaign has created a frenzy of excitement for the musical adaptation.
Some of the biggest, most popular brands have partnered with the movie to release special collections honoring the witches. Wicked fans of all ages and interests are likely to find something to commemorate the movie’s release. Companies like Forever 21, Bloomingdale’s, Gap, H&M, Justice, and Cotton On are among those that have come out with capsule clothing collections in collaboration with the movie. Big names like Shark Beauty, Crocs, Samsung, Vera Bradley, Betty Crocker, Squishmallows, OPI and Lego have also all come out with exclusive pink and green items in conjunction with the release. The marketing team has also jumped onto trends, partnering with viral companies like BÉIS, Stanley and Casetify. While some avid fans ran to get their hands on the Wicked branded merchandise, others were less than impressed by the selection, many of which felt thrown together with the red slippers or green broomsticks haphazardly slapped onto existing items.
The marketing seems to be following a precedent set by Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, spending heavy amounts of the marketing budget on these brand collaborations. This strategy paid off for Barbie, the movie earned over $160 million at the domestic box office on its opening weekend, the highest of the year. Broadway fans are hoping the Wicked movie will find this same success.
Kim Karashian hosted stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo in her Calabasas home for a screening of the movie about a month before its theater release. In typical Kardashian fashion, the screening was extravagant and completely over the top, decked out with a green carpet, pink and green decor, and custom SKIMS outfits for the stars, the sisters and all the Kardashian kids.
The Wicked marketing is also taking a unique angle, focusing on the musical aspects of the film and leaning on the musical’s theater kid fanbase. Mean Girls used the opposite approach, with trailers that left out the score and did not advertise the movie as a musical. This backfired, leaving fans in the theaters caught by surprise when Reneé Rapp’s Regina George started singing. Fortunately, the Wicked movie has focused its marketing on the vocal talent of its stars, with many fans gushing over the small snippets they heard of Jonathan Bailey’s “Dancing Through Life” and Cynthia Erivo’s “Defying Gravity.”
Long before any brand collaborations or influencer movie screenings were announced, the Wicked movie was steeped in controversy. Early in the filming process, Ariana Grande announced her relationship with co-star Ethan Slater (Wicked’s Boq and Broadway’s Spongebob) after they met on the Wicked set. Fans were immediately alarmed by possibly overlapping relationship timelines since the relationship news was broken on TMZ while both Grande and Slater were thought to be married to other people. It seems like the marketing campaign and general movie buzz have been enough to make fans forget the scandal since the couple’s PDA moment at the LA premiere was called “cute” and “sweet” by Page Six.
We still have to wait another year before we can witness the end of Elphaba and Glinda’s story in Part two, which comes out in 2025. If this is only the marketing for part one, imagine the Wicked merch you’ll find on store shelves a year from today. Until then, we’ll have to be content with the collabs we have, which shouldn’t be too hard because the marketing team is working overtime to keep us fed.