The new Wicked movie is better than the musical

Question

The recently released film Wicked (2024) is an adaptation that far surpasses its source material, the Broadway musical Wicked which opened in 2003. According to Alexandra Bowman for DC Theater Arts, "[the movie] brought its source material’s symbol-based, exaggerated, made-for-musical-theater plotline into reality, taking stock characters and reconnecting them with our real world."

Comments

While there are many different opinions on the movie and the musical. In terms of money, broadway is leading in $5 billion in ticket sales while the movie is currently at $358 million. However, Wicked the Broadway has been ongoing since 2003 while the movie just came out a week ago so if the pace of the movie is steady (which it probably will not be) then it will most definitely rise to take over in sales over the movie. While again this is a rather opinionated claim this is the financial take on things.

Sources:
https://deadline.com/2024/11/wicked-box-office-record-broadway-musical-1236190290/
https://deadline.com/2024/11/wicked-box-office-records-1236186470/

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You did an excellent job using facts about how much money the movie had made to try and justify the claim. As you said, this is an opinionated claim and can only be quantified with the money each movie has made. You can really only know how much a movie has made after a certain number of years and adjust for inflation.

Answer 1

The base of the claim made in your article get's at the idea that The musical was a far better performance for my reasons they explain compared to the new movie that has come out. This quote taken from the article, "Why the Wicked movie is better than the Broudway musical l states," "But I couldn’t help but feel quietly upset coming out of the Gershwin about Wicked’s lack of nuance in talking about these issues. It makes the show feel like less of a cautionary fable and more of a fairytale — not the best aesthetic for a textbook political allegory for America’s current struggles." This quote is indicating that the author of the aritcle 'claims that the new version of the mucial lacks real unthenitc troubles and hardhships linked back to the heart of the musical. All tho this may be true, these claims are all subjective to opinion. There may be personal reasoning as to why someone may feel as tho the musical was better than the movie. Or evidence to how one was filmed better, this may be true. Althouh no where in the article, does it specifally state your claim that, "The New Wicked Movie is better than the Musical." As well as the sources I have found, expalin the opposite of your claim. They belilve that the movie is better than the film. This also indaicates the need for understanding opinion. No one can be proved right. The article is trustworthy being from DC Theather Arts, and has evidence to support there claims of opinion perfectly. Although it does not check out for be True. This claim is Likely Misinformaiton.

https://www.nbc.com/nbc-insider/how-is-the-wicked-movie-different-from-the-musical

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/movies/2024/11/23/wicked-movie-musical-stage-broadway/

Comments

I agree with your claim, you made a good point that the article never clearly says the movie is better than the musical. It just talks about how the movie feels different, not necessarily better. I think a lot of people online make this mistake by turning small opinions into big claims that aren't really true. You also did a good job showing that whether the movie or the musical is better is really just someone’s opinion, not a fact that can be proven. I also liked that you used strong sources like DC Theater Arts and the Washington Post. One thing you could work on is fixing small spelling mistakes, because it would make your factcheck easier to follow. Overall, you explained everything clearly and gave good reasons why this claim is likely misinformation.

Answer 2

Most claims that include the words “better”, “best”, or “worst”, are difficult — if not impossible — to prove right or wrong. To confirm without subjectivity, comments must be tested empirically, or at least be backed by empirical evidence. (DC Theater Arts) 

In terms of the quality of the film in comparison to the musical, there are only a few numerical values that we can predicate the response on, the most obvious being profit. 

Wicked — the movie adaptation — has made approximately $756 million worldwide at the time of writing this. In comparison, the musical’s profit reportedly surpassed $1 billion in 2016. It is also important to note that the musical had a 22 year head-start — at this rate, it is safe to say that the movie’s profits will surpass the musical’s. (Box Office Mojo, Wikipedia) 

Most, if not all, other elements of the movie are subjective and cannot be factored in when deciding the merit of the film.