John Chu’s stunningly visible movie Depraved (2024) generated $634 million in ticket gross sales and $100 million extra by way of digital releases, making its mark as one of many largest movies of the 12 months in addition to the highest-grossing film musical in historical past.
But it surely was greater than only a big-budget hit; its narrative of the unlikely bond between the green-skinned“outcast,” Elphaba (performed by Cynthia Erivo) and her roommate, the attractive and standard Galinda (performed by Ariana Grande), struck a chord with audiences by way of its unforgettable message of transformation and self-acceptance.
The second and remaining installment of the Depraved franchise, Depraved: For Good, hits theaters Friday, November 21, 2025, and guarantees to be an much more intense and sophisticated story of Elphaba and Galinda’s relationship—and their new identities because the Depraved Witch of the West and Glinda the Good.
Expectations are excessive that Depraved: For Good will once more “defy gravity” by way of ticket gross sales, which can come as a reduction to the movie business, which has been struggling in 2025. In comparison with the primary quarter of 2024, U.S. field workplace income declined 7% year-over-year in 2025. In March alone, it was down roughly 50%, based on The Los Angeles Instances.
Nonetheless, forecasters predict that the constructive momentum generated by the primary Depraved movie will proceed with its sequel—gross sales projections vary between $112 million and $115 million for the movie’s first weekend alone, based on Deadline.
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♬ unique sound – Depraved: For Good
5 methods the Depraved franchise impacts the American financial system
You would possibly say that over the previous two years, the U.S. financial system as a complete has benefitted from the magic of Depraved, because the movie produced a measurable ripple impact by way of ticket gross sales, streaming, tourism, retail, and even native enterprise exercise.
Right here’s how:
1. The movie business advantages
The worth of a blockbuster is straightforward to trace in financial phrases. Mainly, the extra money a film makes, the extra the film business as a complete advantages.
In accordance with NBCUniversal, Depraved generated $700 million in world field workplace gross sales, with $240.4 million from worldwide audiences and $460.6 million from home viewers. This accounted for about 8% of the movie business’s complete $8.7 billion income in 2024, as tracked by Statista.
Greater ticket gross sales assist make film theaters worthwhile. Their proceeds are used to pay concession distributors and worker payrolls. Blockbusters additionally allow studios to recoup their investments and reinvest these funds into new initiatives, like sequels, which preserve movie crews and their provide chains busy for years to come back.
2. At-home audiences develop
Whereas Dorothy Gale makes solely a quick look in Depraved: For Good, her immortal phrases deeply resonate: There actually is no place like dwelling, particularly with regards to watching motion pictures.
After its large theatrical launch, Depraved transitioned from theaters to digital streaming, or Premium Video on Demand (PVOD), on December 31, 2024, producing $70 million in its first week. This made it the very best first week ever for any Common-produced movie, based on NBC Common.
The good minds who designed Depraved’s distribution mannequin enabled it to take pleasure in a “hybrid” mannequin of each theatrical and at-home viewers. Nonetheless, its unusually massive post-theatrical income stream additionally helped to increase its worth past business norms.
In accordance with The Hollywood Reporter, the movie proved that it may stay a success in theaters whereas transitioning to dwelling leisure inside 30 days of its launch. (Earlier than Depraved modified every little thing, first-run motion pictures often took 75 to 90 days to change into accessible for at-home viewing.)
This breakthrough will assist to ascertain new income channels for future movies, and associated industries—like streaming companies and digital retailers—stand to profit.
This development may even ultimately encourage a movie to be made accessible to observe at dwelling the identical day it’s launched in theaters.
Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande seem right here, holding fingers as they usually do, on the New York premiere of “Wicked: For Good” on November 17, 2025.
KENA BETANCUR/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
3. Broadway & touring productions profit
Depraved often is the prequel to The Wizard of Oz, nevertheless it had its genesis on Broadway, and the movie’s success has impressed renewed curiosity in seeing the play stay.
Stay 365 reported that in November 2024, the Depraved musical turned the most well liked ticket in New York Metropolis. Costs jumped from a mean of $166 per ticket in November 2023 to a mean $312 per ticket in November 2024, which exceeded the $280 common per-ticket worth audiences had been paying for Hamilton.
Thanksgiving week is often one of many strongest weeks on Broadway, and Morningstar reported that Depraved turned the best-selling manufacturing within the Theater District, raking in $2.93 million, which positioned it forward of The Lion King ($2.88 million) and Hamilton ($2.58 million).
Not unhealthy for a 20-year-old manufacturing, however the numbers are much more unbelievable while you check out the manufacturing’s affect globally.
Since its preliminary launch in 2003, Depraved has grossed $1.7 billion on Broadway and $6 billion worldwide, based on NBCUniversal, by way of each regional excursions and worldwide productions.
Elevated demand interprets to larger income for everybody concerned within the theater, practically in all places there is a theater, from producers to administrators, touring casts and extras, stagehands, musicians, and a slew of different staff and suppliers. That provides as much as 1000’s of jobs in every little thing from costume retailers to the development business, and most of that cash stays within the native financial system.
4. Tourism is boosted
Talking of the theater, marquee exhibits can drive tens of thousands and thousands in native spending—each on and off Broadway, one thing Depraved has greater than amply proved.
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In accordance with The Broadway League, throughout the 2018–2019 season, the newest season the group measured, Broadway contributed $14.7 billion to the financial system of New York Metropolis and supported 96,900 jobs.
Smaller venues round America, resembling these in Minneapolis, loved an analogous enhance. Greater than 100,000 theatergoers noticed the nationwide touring manufacturing of Depraved in Minneapolis in 2022. And it wasn’t the primary time the manufacturing got here to the Twin Cities—it was its sixth.
The Broadway League estimated the manufacturing’s native financial affect on Minneapolis was round $30.9 million, based on Twin Cities Arts.
That’s as a result of theatergoers don’t simply purchase efficiency tickets. In addition they spend on eating, accommodations, transit, and procuring. Municipal and state tax authorities profit, too.
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5. Retailers shine
Lastly, what would the prequel to The Wizard of Oz be with out some nice swag? The Depraved franchise unleashed an avalanche of enjoyable product partnerships, starting from toys to clothes, collectibles, and collaborations with Ariana Grande’s private make-up model, r.e.m. magnificence.
In actual fact, The Hollywood Reporter states that the unique Depraved film established partnerships with greater than 60 manufacturers, together with H&M, Hole, Lego, and Bloomingdale’s. This time round, Common Footage has dubbed each Wednesday “Wicked Wednesday” by launching new merchandise main as much as Depraved: For Good’s launch.
These merchandise lead to new jobs in a spread of industries, from manufacturing to distribution to retail. It additionally creates a income stream of predictable gross sales to loyal followers and can go a good distance in boosting the nation’s retail business.
This enhance couldn’t come at a extra crucial time, since StoreForce stories that 2025 vacation gross sales are estimated to publish solely modest development of round 1.2% over 2024, as a result of rising shopper costs fueling inflation.
