Universal images’ Bad movies based on the wildly popular Broadway musical seem to be becoming a Thanksgiving tradition.
Director Jon M. Chu and the film’s stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande revealed on their respective social media feeds on Tuesday that Bad part two moves the theatrical release date from December 25, 2025 to November 26, 2025, a Wednesday.
The movie is no surprise. In March, Universal and the filmmakers also moved up Bad part one from December 25, 2024 to November 27, 2024.
Insiders say opening during Thanksgiving gives the event films more time to build an audience during the holiday season and is also beneficial from a consumer products standpoint.
The star-studded cast also includes Michelle Yeoh – who made history earlier this year when she won the Academy Award for Best Actress – Jeff Goldblum, Jonathan Bailey and Ethan Slater.
The Bad movies, based on Gregory Maguire’s bestseller, has been made into a film by stage production novelist Winnie Holzman and Academy Award-winning composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz. The Broadway musical is produced by Universal Stage Productions.
“Bad is such a proud part of our legacy,” Universal film executive Donna Langley told theater owners at CinemaCon in late April, noting that the musical has just become the fourth longest-running in Broadway history. “They create an entire world that I know will dazzle your screens.” Images from the film were one of the highlights of the annual convention of exhibitors.
Badthe untold story of the witches of Oz, stars Erivo as Elphaba, a defiant social outcast who has yet to discover her true power, and Grande as Glinda, a popular young woman, gilded by privilege and ambition, who has yet to discover her true Hart.
As the two women forge an unlikely sisterhood, they will empower each other in ways neither of them foresees. But as dark forces of prejudice and oppression loom on the horizon, the choices they make will separate them, and they will meet a different fate that will change them, and Oz, forever.
