A wickedly wild set of movie choices

Wandering into the lobby during “Wicked: For Good,” I saw reassuring signs of life.
There were kids scurrying about, eager to see “Zootopia 2.” And there were the boom-boon sounds of “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2.”
Together, those three films remind us that people are — at least for now — returning to movie theaters. They also remind us that:
— Movies really can have magnificent moments. Visually, this “Wicked” sequel is stunning. Director John Chu has done just what he did with “In the Heights,” “Crazy Rich Asians” and the first “Wicked” movie: He’s given us something that really should be savored on a giant screen.
— And they can offer endless variety. We’ll hope that no “Zootopia” fans wandered into “Freddy’s” by mistake. But both extremes have propped up business at movie theaters.
Five years ago, the domestic box office (that’s for U.S. and Canada) topped $11 billion a year. Then Covid struck, people discovered streaming and Hollywood made fewer movies.
The total was 9.04 billion in 2023 and $8.7 billion in 2024, according to Variety, the show-business trade paper. Now experts are hoping to at least top those totals, for a post-Covid record.
Propping things up are the extremes of:
— Animated films for kids. The year’s box-office champions are “Minecraft” and “Lilo & Stitch,” both at $424 million domestically. “Zootopia 2” has $220 million after two weeks and has already made a bundle overseas. Next comes “SpongeBob,” on Dec. 16.
— And scary films for grown-ups. “Freddy’s” debuted this past weekend and made $63 million — as much as “Zootopia” (second weekend) and “Wicked” (third) combined. One expert told CNN that horror films could total a record $2.65 billion worldwide — about one-seventh of all the movie money.
The problem is between those extremes.
Tom Cruise brought Hollywood out of the Covid slump with “Top Gun: Maverick,” but then his two “Mission: Impossible” films underperformed. This year’s was just under $200 million domestically.
The superhero films also used to do big business, until they wore out their welcome. The Variety report sees the latest “Tron” and “Captain America” sequels as box-office disappointments. The best news came from “Superman,” which injected fresh wit and made $359 million.
Still, all sides see hope. Dec. 16 will bring James Cameron’s latest “Avatar” epic, plus “SpongeBob” and Sydney Sweeney in a dark thriller, “The Housemaid.”
Christmas Day will bring three smaller films that have starpower. It will be Timothee Chalamet as a ping-pong zealot in “Marty Supreme,” Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson as members of a real-life Neil Diamond tribute band in “Song Sung Blue” and Paul Rudd and Jack Black in the broad comedy “Anaconda.”
Maybe some of those will bring some more people back to theaters. Or maybe people will just keep returning to “Wicked,” to remember how grand a big-screen movie can be.