The 2024 film adaptation of “Wicked” holds an IMDb rating of 7.3 out of 10, placing it comfortably in the solid-to-good range for major theatrical releases. The film, directed by Jon M.
Chu and starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, was released in November 2024 and achieved both commercial success and general audience approval, though critical sentiment shows some variance.
- Imdb Rating Wicked: Table of Contents
- How Do the Wicked Films' Ratings Compare to Other Major Musicals?
- What Drives the Rating for the Original Wicked (2024)?
- Why Did the Wicked Sequel Drop to 6.7?
- How Do IMDb Ratings Compare to Professional Critics' Reviews?
- What Are the Limitations of IMDb Ratings as Quality Measures?
- What Do These Ratings Tell You About Audience Experience?
- The Future of Wicked Film Ratings and the Franchise
- Conclusion
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The 2025 sequel, “Wicked: For Good,” carries a somewhat lower rating of 6.7 out of 10, suggesting a slight dip in audience satisfaction between the two installments. These ratings tell a meaningful story about how audiences have received these adaptations.
A 7.3 rating on IMDb typically indicates a film that resonates with viewers as entertaining and generally well-made, even if it doesn’t achieve the near-unanimous acclaim of the highest-rated films. This article explores what these ratings mean, how the Wicked films compare to similar musicals, and what factors influence audience reception on IMDb.
Table of Contents
- How Do the Wicked Films’ Ratings Compare to Other Major Musicals?
- What Drives the Rating for the Original Wicked (2024)?
- Why Did the Wicked Sequel Drop to 6.7?
- How Do IMDb Ratings Compare to Professional Critics’ Reviews?
- What Are the Limitations of IMDb Ratings as Quality Measures?
- What Do These Ratings Tell You About Audience Experience?
- The Future of Wicked Film Ratings and the Franchise
- Conclusion
How Do the Wicked Films’ Ratings Compare to Other Major Musicals?
The 7.3 rating for Wicked (2024) places it squarely in the middle tier of theatrical musical adaptations. For comparison, “Les Misérables” (2012) holds a 7.6 on IMDb, while “The Greatest Showman” (2017) achieved 8.0, and “In the Heights” (2021) landed at 6.9.
This context helps clarify that Wicked’s rating reflects a well-received but not exceptionally acclaimed entry in the musical film canon.
The 6.7 rating for “Wicked: For Good” (2025) edges closer to films like “Cats” (2019), which infamously scored 4.3, though Wicked: For Good remains substantially higher-rated than that poorly-received adaptation.
What’s notable is that Wicked (2024) outperforms many modern musicals despite coming from a source material with an exceptionally devoted fanbase who could theoretically skew ratings upward. This suggests the film achieved a genuine balance between satisfying the expectations of established fans and appealing to general audiences who may not have seen the stage production.
What Drives the Rating for the Original Wicked (2024)?
The 7.3 rating for Wicked (2024) reflects several factors that shaped audience responses. Jon M.
Chu’s direction brought visual spectacle and emotional depth to the story, while the casting of Cynthia Erivo (as Elphaba) and Ariana Grande (as Glinda) generated both excitement and scrutiny.
Erivo’s vocal performance and dramatic intensity particularly resonated with viewers, though some audiences felt the film’s pacing and tonal shifts occasionally disrupted momentum. The film’s production design, costuming, and musical arrangements all contributed to positive word-of-mouth, counterbalancing reservations some viewers had about narrative choices or character interpretations.
However, it’s worth noting that devoted stage show enthusiasts sometimes had specific critiques about how certain songs were arranged or which elements were modified for film.
A 7.3 rating suggests that these concerns didn’t prevent the film from achieving broad appeal, but they may have prevented it from achieving the 8.0+ range that would indicate near-universal acclaim.
Why Did the Wicked Sequel Drop to 6.7?
The sequel “Wicked: For Good” (2025) received a 6.7 rating, marking a notable decline from its predecessor. This pattern frequently occurs with major film franchises, where second installments face higher expectations and more divided opinions.
Several factors likely contributed: audiences who felt the first film took too many liberties with the source material may have had their concerns amplified in the sequel, while viewers expecting a straightforward continuation of the original’s tone may have found something different.
The sequel’s rating decline is moderate rather than dramatic, suggesting audiences still found it reasonably entertaining rather than disappointing. The drop from 7.3 to 6.7 is significant enough to indicate a meaningful shift in reception but modest enough to suggest both films occupy similar quality territory.
This 0.6-point decline mirrors patterns seen in other major musicals where sequels faced slightly more critical audience reception than originals.
How Do IMDb Ratings Compare to Professional Critics’ Reviews?
imdb ratings represent aggregated audience votes rather than professional critical assessments, which creates an important distinction worth understanding. A film might score 7.3 on IMDb (audience average) while professional critics give it mixed-to-positive reviews with individual scores varying widely.
Wicked (2024) benefited from generally favorable critical coverage, with many reviewers praising the lead performances and production values, though some professional critics had reservations about pacing or narrative adaptation choices.
The 7.3 IMDb rating suggests that general audiences were somewhat more enthusiastic than the critical consensus, indicating the film succeeded in its mass-market appeal even if it didn’t win over every serious film critic.
This distinction matters because you might encounter a film with a 7.0 IMDb score that professional critics adored, or conversely, a film with a 7.5 that critics found more problematic.
For Wicked (2024), the relatively healthy 7.3 rating paired with generally positive critical reception suggests the film achieved success across both audience and critical registers, even if it wasn’t universally acclaimed.
What Are the Limitations of IMDb Ratings as Quality Measures?
While IMDb ratings provide a useful aggregate measure of audience satisfaction, they come with meaningful limitations. The platform’s rating system reflects the opinions of IMDb users, who skew toward film enthusiasts rather than representing a truly random sample of everyone who sees a movie.
More avid film fans tend to rate more precisely and thoughtfully, while casual moviegoers who see films in theaters may be underrepresented in IMDb’s voting pool.
Additionally, IMDb ratings can fluctuate somewhat in the weeks and months after release as more users vote, and they can be influenced by various forms of review manipulation, though the site maintains systems to detect and counteract such activity.
For a blockbuster musical like Wicked (2024), it’s also worth considering that the film’s fanbase, drawn from the cultural phenomenon of the stage show, might rate it differently than audiences with no prior connection to that property.
A 7.3 rating tells you that the film was generally well-received, but it doesn’t fully capture nuances like whether existing Wicked stage fans had different reactions than newcomers, or whether specific demographics found the film more or less satisfying.
What Do These Ratings Tell You About Audience Experience?
A 7.3 rating for Wicked (2024) indicates that most viewers found it to be a solid, entertaining film worth watching, though not necessarily a masterpiece.
This translates to real-world experience: you could reasonably expect the film to feature strong performances, quality production values, and generally engaging storytelling, while acknowledging that some viewers might find elements they dislike or aspects that don’t work for their personal preferences.
For prospective viewers, this rating suggests a lower-risk choice compared to films rated 6.0 or below, where more significant quality concerns typically emerge. The 6.7 rating for Wicked: For Good carries slightly different implications, suggesting that while the sequel maintains basic quality standards and provides entertainment value, it experienced a more mixed reception.
This might indicate the sequel is worth watching if you enjoyed the first film, but with slightly moderated expectations about how it will compare.
The Future of Wicked Film Ratings and the Franchise
The Wicked film franchise’s rating trajectory—from 7.3 to 6.7—offers insight into how audience reception can shift across installments. Whether future Wicked films maintain these rating ranges or shift higher or lower will depend on creative decisions, casting choices, narrative directions, and how viewers respond to continued adaptations of the stage property.
Historically, long-running theatrical franchises experience variable audience reception, with some sequels recovering critical ground and others continuing to decline.
The ratings for these films also reflect a specific moment in musical film adaptations, where serious investment in bringing stage properties to screen has become more common. As more of these adaptations emerge, the Wicked films’ ratings will continue to provide reference points for how successful this approach has been.
The 7.3 rating for the original remains a solid benchmark for a major musical adaptation that balanced fan expectations with general audience appeal.
Conclusion
The IMDb rating of 7.3 for Wicked (2024) reflects a well-received film adaptation that successfully appealed to both longtime stage show enthusiasts and general audiences seeking entertainment. While the sequel’s 6.7 rating suggests some audience satisfaction declined, both films remain solidly in the positive range, indicating viewers generally found them worth watching.
These ratings should be understood as one data point among many—professional reviews, audience word-of-mouth, and your own expectations for musical adaptations all matter alongside IMDb’s aggregated scores.
If you’re deciding whether to watch the Wicked films, these ratings suggest both are likely to provide entertainment value, with the original possibly offering a stronger experience than the sequel based on audience feedback.
Keep in mind that your personal response may differ significantly from aggregate IMDb scores, particularly if you have specific preferences about how stage properties should be adapted or strong existing connections to the original material.
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