Amazon is offering Prime members an early look at Wicked: For Good, hosting exclusive advance screenings in some theaters before the film opens wide. It’s a simple perk — if you’re a Prime subscriber, you get to reserve seats before the general public and be among the first to return to Oz on the biggest screen near you.
How the early access phase for Prime screenings works
Through a deal with Universal Pictures, Amazon is releasing a limited number of early-access tickets for sale to Prime users.
- How the early access phase for Prime screenings works
- Who is eligible and how do I get seats for early access?
- Why this perk matters for Prime and Universal Pictures
- What is Wicked: For Good going to be like?
- Catch up on Wicked before you go to the theater
- Bottom line for Prime members seeking early tickets
The screenings will be hosted at select theaters throughout the United States, and the seating is first-come, first-served. Tickets will be available at different locations and showtimes, and stock is likely to be snapped up fast with such a dedicated fan base for the franchise.
Tickets will be fulfilled through Fandango, the ticketing service that works with most major theater chains across the country. Amazon is also offering a dedicated hub for sign-ups and notifications — OzOnAmazon — so members can be pinged in real time once seats go live. The process is similar to other event-style rollouts: opt in, keep an eye on your inbox, and be at the ready to visit as soon as inventory is released.
Who is eligible and how do I get seats for early access?
The offer is available to active Prime members, who can purchase a limited number of tickets per transaction, based on theater capacity. To be sure to have a chance, sign up for notifications through the Amazon hub and check your Prime status ahead of time, but also prepare an alternate location or screening time in case your top choice sells out. Since some theaters stagger releases by format, premium selections like IMAX or Dolby may be available at select times or excluded depending on the venue.
Fandango accounts can also help with quick checkout. If you usually pay with a stored card or wallet, make sure to have that set up in advance of the on-sale time. For titles with rabid fan followings, windows can close in minutes — especially for big markets — so make sure you’re prepared.
Why this perk matters for Prime and Universal Pictures
Exclusive showings create word-of-mouth and social chatter that studios are using more frequently to try to build momentum before a film’s first full weekend in theaters. For Amazon, the early theatrical access also confers more concrete value to a subscription service that already offers advantages like speedy shipping and streaming. The company has long touted entertainment benefits as a way to keep Prime sticky, revealing the growth of Prime membership to more than 200 million globally in recent years and highlighting the pool of potential participants.
For Universal Pictures, the franchise’s deeply engaged fan base reaps the rewards of focused preview events. Theater tracking firms like Comscore and Gower Street Analytics have observed that eventized preview screenings often match up with stronger pre-sales, as well as early audience scores — inputs that feed the virtuous cycle of buzz and repeat viewings.
What is Wicked: For Good going to be like?
Helmed by Jon M. Chu, Wicked: For Good re-teams Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda, with Jeff Goldblum playing the Wizard.
The story continues the cinematic conversion of the popular Broadway musical by taking us behind the scenes to reveal that it all began as a friendship — a friendship between two unlikely and pitted against each other rivals, that is: the so-called Wicked Witch was born to fight tyranny when Glinda’s capacity for moral elasticity reached its limit.
The subtitle is a reference to “For Good,” one of the stage show’s most enduring songs (which can be sung, with conviction and perhaps a few tears), an anthem of friendship and moral gymnastics. Anticipate that the film will embrace that duality, enlarging the Ozverse with larger-scale set pieces and newly invigorated choreography and those kinds of big — but soulful — vocal performances the original musical (which I gotta admit was a giant of my youth) took to heart.
Catch up on Wicked before you go to the theater
If you never saw the first movie, it can be streamed on Peacock, which is home to recent Universal Pictures titles after they leave theaters. As an additional revitalizer, the original Broadway cast recording (on Decca Broadway) is a must-listen and can help prepare you for the musical themes that extend to the films.
Bottom line for Prime members seeking early tickets
Log in to your Amazon account, sign up for alerts on the OzOnAmazon page, and be prepared at Fandango when tickets are released. Availability is limited and demand is high, but if you act fast, you will be back in Oz ahead of the pack to see Wicked: For Good before it goes on sale to general audiences.