Wicked still brought a lot of queer joy to this year’s Golden Globes despite being ‘snubbed’
Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Marc E. Platt and Wicked director, Jon M. Chu pictured at the 82nd Annual Golden Globe Awards. (Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)
Wicked fans are claiming that the movie was snubbed at this year’s Golden Globes after it took home just one “embarrassing” award, but despite that, the film and its cast still had a big impact on the star-studded event.
The film, starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, won the Golden Globe Award for Cinematic and Box Office Achievement. A recognition that highlights its position as the highest-grossing film adaptation of a Broadway musical of all time featuring an out LGBTQ+ lead actor, with Cynthia Erivo cast as Elphaba Thropp.
The only film that features an out LGBTQ+ lead actor that has grossed more than Wicked is Finding Dory, centred on Dory who was voiced by lesbian comedian Ellen DeGeneres. Moana 2 follows closely behind Wicked due to the fact that the film’s protagonist is voiced by bisexual star, Auli’i Cravalho.
‘We don’t need an award to tell us the biggest box office earners of the year’
Fans of Wicked, which grossed $164 million (£130 million) at the worldwide box office during its opening weekend, have taken to social media to protest the film’s lack of recognition at the Golden Globes.
One fan wrote, alongside a GIF: “CAUSE YEA! They needed to leave with something!”
CAUSE YEA! They needed to leave with something! #GoldenGlobes pic.twitter.com/GmU9H9zVfk
— lola_lolo27 (@LorenLyons07) January 6, 2025
Another hit out at the award being “redundant”, writing: “God this award is so stupid. We don’t need an award to tell us the biggest box office earners of the year. So f*****g redundant.”
“Giving an award to the movie that made the most money is so silly i just can’t take it seriously,” someone else wrote.
Another frustrated fan tweeted that it is a “weird pity award” that is “fake” and created to ensure fans “don’t cry over their favourite movie losing.”
Having to give a speech for “box office achievement” at an awards show is actually so embarrassing lol
— Ihateberwald (@ihateberwald) January 6, 2025
This weird pity award that they give to box office hits is so strange… literally a fake award they created so that weirdo fans don’t cry over their favorite movie losing #GoldenGlobes
— tennessee stella mccartney (@handfulbaby13) January 6, 2025
Director Jon M Chu’s accepted the Golden Globe in the new category, which was created last year in light of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie’s undeniable box office success in 2023.
In his speech, he thanked fans for their support of the movie musical, saying: “It shows us how important making this stuff is — in a time when pessimism and cynicism sort of rule the planet right now — that we can still make art that is a radical act of optimism.”
‘Mother’ Michelle Yeoh and ‘zaddy’ Jeff Goldblum ‘slayed the house down boots’
Jeff Goldblum: People have been calling me "zaddy"
— Spencer Althouse (@SpencerAlthouse) January 6, 2025
Michelle Yeoh: And the same people have been saying that I'm "serving mother"#GoldenGlobes pic.twitter.com/LeSzUGkJLu
However, despite the controversy surrounding the alleged ‘snubbing’, the cast of Wicked brought a lot of funny moments and out and out queer joy to the ceremony.
Wicked stars Jeff “Oz the great and powerful” Goldblum and Michelle “Madame Morrible” Yeoh took to the stage as presenters, and packed their time on stage with as much LGBTQ+ terminology as possible.
Yeoh opened by saying that they’d recently learned “that the internet has been saying things about us.”
Goldblum added, “People, for instance, have been calling me ‘zaddy.'” “Sorry, what’s ‘zaddy’?” Yeoh countered. “The same people have been saying that I’m serving ‘mother.’ And… slay the boots house down?”
Both then turned to look into the audience, and Wicked actors Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande could be seen “feeding” Yeoh her lines.
“Come on, I would never slay anyone’s house down,” Yeoh joked. “While we don’t fully understand what these things mean,” Goldblum began, Yeoh finished his sentence by saying, “We absolutely love it!”
Other LGBTQ+ highlights from the Golden Globes included trans musical Emilia Pérez triumphing as the most nominated film of the night, winning four Golden Globe awards: Best Film – Musical or Comedy, Supporting Female Actor for Zoe Saldaña, Original Song and Best Film Not in the English Language.
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