Sure, you can sing along at your screening of ‘Wicked’ — but not until Christmas

Are you dying to sing along when you see “Wicked” in theaters? You can — you’ll just have to wait until December.
According to Variety, there will be sing-along screenings of “Wicked” starting on Dec. 25.
The “interactive showings” will be “offered in roughly 1,000 North American cinemas,” although locations and showtimes haven’t been finalized yet, the article said.
“Wicked: Part 1″ premiered on Nov. 22 and had a record-breaking box office weekend. Audiences flocked to theaters to see movie-musical, and the movie brought in $112.5 million domestically and $162.5M worldwide, according to Deadline.
“Wicked” broke multiple records, including the “biggest global and domestic opening for a movie based on a Broadway show,” per Deadline — a record previously held by “Les Miserables” and “Into the Woods,” which made $103 million worldwide and $31 million domestic, respectively.
With “Wicked” garnering such large audience, fans are worried that Broadway enthusiasts will sing along during screenings — and are warning moviegoers not to.
Popular theater chain AMC is warning fans to refrain from singing during “Wicked,” according to CBS.
AMC has posted signs at their locations, which read, “To our guests seeing ‘Wicked,’ we ask that you allow everyone to enjoy the cinema experience. Please refrain from singing during the show.”
Many fans have sided with AMC and taken to the internet to dissuade audiences from singing along.
As one fan wrote on X, “I have decided that I won’t be able to watch Wicked in theaters, because someone in the audience will start singing along and I don’t need a felony.”
But some people disagree with AMC’s stance.
As another fan wrote on X, “I’ma keep it real with y’all. If the idea of people singing along to Wicked songs in theaters bothers you, maybe don’t go see it opening weekend. Opening weekends are for the fandoms.”
There are already reports of fans singing along at their “Wicked” screenings.
As Angela Weir, who saw an early screening “Wicked,” told The New York Times, there were plenty of people singing along in her theater.
“It started slow. Then people heard each other — it was like they encouraged each other,” Weir said. “It was a beautiful scene, and then you’re taken out of it.”
Weir told The New York Times that the singing was most egregious during “Defying Gravity” — one of the musical’s most climactic numbers, and certainly its most iconic.
“There’s this incredible last scene of the movie, and I wasn’t even in it because I was so horrified that I could hear other people over Cynthia Erivo,” Weir told The New York Times. “That stunned me.”
On the other hand, some fans are looking forward to singing along — whether their fellow moviegoers like it or not.
As “Wicked” fan Leah Barnes told The New York Times, “Don’t go the first day and yell at people for singing, for sharing that kind of joy, when we’ve been waiting so long in anticipation for this movie.”
But the general consensus seems to be that singing along to “Wicked” is just bad etiquette — that is, until the singalong screenings.
As Jonanthon Cray, a “Wicked” fan, told The New York Times, “There is a time and place for singing in movies. People need to practice theater etiquette and act as if you’re at a Broadway show.”
Cray concluded, “You wouldn’t sing at a Broadway show, so why would you sing at this movie?”