Wicked is now the serious contender for the Oscars.

Not only did the film gross $358 million worldwide, but it was also liked by the Academy. The Hollywood Reporter journalist claims (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/wicked-win-best-picture-oscars-shock-1236073471/) that the three most important guilds — producers, directors, actors — greeted the film with delight. They say that Oppenheimer was met with a standing ovation, but even that cannot be compared to how Wicked is received. At industry screenings, everyone sang, applauded, cried, and danced.

This might be helped in the Best Picture nominations by this being the first truly major Hollywood project after the pandemic. And the kind that the academics like-bright, nostalgic and sweeping. The academics could miss such classic Hollywood cinema. In the Covid years, such atypical films as "Coda" or "Everything Everywhere and at Once" could win an Oscar. But blockbusters never managed to get that very prize.