Oz the Great and Powerful premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on February 13, 2013, and was released theatrically in the United States on March 8, 2013, in Disney Digital 3D, RealD 3D and IMAX 3D formats.

It received mixed reviews from critics and was commercially successful, grossing $493.3 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing Oz-related film until Wicked (2024).

At the Emerald City, Theodora's older sister, Evanora, tells Oscar that the Wicked Witch resides in the Dark Forest and can be killed if her wand is destroyed.

On their journey to the forest, Oscar and Finley are joined by an orphaned living china doll whose village and family were destroyed by the Wicked Witch.

Observing through her crystal ball, Evanora tricks Theodora into thinking Oscar is trying to court all three witches, offering her a magic apple "to remove her heartache" by giving her the power to kill him, which turns her into an evil hideous green-skinned creature instead.

Glinda and her subjects mount a fake attack on the Emerald City using a pulley-rig army of mechanical scarecrow puppets hidden by thick fog.

Meanwhile, Oscar infiltrates the Emerald City with his allies but seemingly abandons them in a hot air balloon loaded with gold, which Theodora destroys with a fireball.

Oscar's face is used as the projected image of the Wizard; in the book, he appears as a giant head, a beautiful fairy, a horrible monster, and a ball of fire.

Also from the 1939 film is that several actors who play Oz characters make cameos in the Kansas segments, such as Frank, Oscar's assistant whom he refers to as his "trained monkey" (Frank's "Oz" counterpart is the winged monkey Finley), a young disabled girl who serves as the Kansas counterpart to China Girl (in Kansas, Oscar is unable to make the wheelchair-using young girl walk, and gets a chance to do so when he repairs China Girl's broken legs), and Annie who inspires Oscar to be a good and great person (Annie's "Oz" counterpart, Glinda, also inspires Oscar to be a better person) informs him that she has been proposed to by John Gale, presumably hinting at Dorothy's parental lineage as Annie is seen wearing a gingham dress, a pattern famously associated with Dorothy.

Evanora, the Wicked Witch of the East, wears an emerald necklace that gives her powers instead of magical shoes (which are silver in the book and ruby in the 1939 film) later worn by Dorothy.

[18] After the success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937, Walt Disney planned to produce an animated film based on the first of L. Frank Baum's Oz books.

Upon the release of the musical Wicked, screenwriter Mitchell Kapner felt he had missed his opportunity to explore the origins of the Wizard of Oz character.

Roth said: "… during the years that I spent running Walt Disney Studios [...] I learned about how hard it was to find a fairy tale with a good strong male protagonist.

Disney president Sean Bailey commissioned Oz the Great and Powerful (under the working title "Brick") during the tenure of chairman Dick Cook, who was succeeded by Rich Ross, and later Alan Horn, a succession in management rarely survived by a major studio release.

Stromberg contrasted the colorful tonal qualities of Oz with the restrained appearance of Alice, affirming that although both films explore similar fantasy worlds, the overall atmosphere and landscape of each "are completely different.

"[41] My first instinct was, there are such iconic images in the Wizard of Oz movie, it would be wrong for us to re-create the Yellow Brick Road or the Emerald City in a different way.

[42] This extended to the green of the Wicked Witch's skin for which Disney used what its legal department considered a sufficiently different shade dubbed "Theostein" (a portmanteau of "Theodora" and "Frankenstein").

[43] Additionally, the studio could not use the signature chin mole of Margaret Hamilton's portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West nor could they employ the yellow brick road's swirl design for Munchkinland.

Rachel Weisz left halfway through the shoot to film her entire role in The Bourne Legacy, Michelle Williams was required to promote the release of My Week with Marilyn and Franco's father died during production.

[54] To promote the film, Disney partnered with the IMAX Corporation and HSN to coordinate a hot air balloon campaign across the United States beginning in California at the Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank, stopping at four locations; the El Capitan Theatre during the world premiere, the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, the Daytona International Speedway in Florida and Central Park in New York City.

[65] Before its theatrical release, several media outlets reported that Oz the Great and Powerful was expected to duplicate the box office performance of 2010's Alice in Wonderland.

The site's critical consensus reads, "It suffers from some tonal inconsistency and a deflated sense of wonder, but Oz the Great and Powerful still packs enough visual dazzle and clever wit to be entertaining in its own right.

[81] Kim Newman, writing for Empire, gave the film 4 out of 5 stars and said, "If there are post-Harry Potter children who don't know or care about The Wizard Of Oz, they might be at sea with this story about a not-very-nice grownup in a magic land, but long-term Oz watchers will be enchanted and enthralled ... Mila Kunis gets a gold star for excellence in bewitchery and Sam Raimi can settle securely behind the curtain as a mature master of illusion.

"[85] Justin Chang of Variety had a mixed reaction, writing that the film "gets some mileage out of its game performances, luscious production design and the unfettered enthusiasm director Sam Raimi brings to a thin, simplistic origin story.

But just when you see Raimi's kinetic, signature style starting to unleash, the story forces the film back into its Disney shell to play to the masses.

"[87] Richard Roeper, writing for Roger Ebert, noted the film's omnipresent visual effects but was largely disappointed by the performance of some cast members; "... to see Williams so bland and sugary as Glinda, and Kunis so flat and ineffectual as the heartsick Theodora ..."[88] Marshall Fine of The Huffington Post was unimpressed, writing, "Oh, it's exciting enough for a six-year-old; anyone older, however, will already have been exposed to so much on TV, at the movies and on the Internet that this will seem like so much visual cotton-candy.

"[89] Similarly, Todd McCarthy criticized the characterization, writing that the film's supporting cast "can't begin to compare with their equivalents in the original ... so the burden rests entirely upon Franco and Williams, whose dialogue exchanges are repetitive and feel tentative.

"[90] Entertainment Weekly agreed, giving the film a C+ and saying that the "miscast" Franco "lacks the humor, charm, and gee-whiz wonder we're meant to feel as he trades wisecracks with a flying monkey ... and soars above a field of poppies in a giant soap bubble.

"[9] Alisha Coelho of in.com gave the movie 2.5 stars, saying "Oz The Great and Powerful doesn't leave a lasting impression, but is an a-ok watch.

[99] On March 8, 2013, Sam Raimi told Bleeding Cool that he had no plans to direct the sequel, saying, "I did leave some loose ends for another director if they want to make the picture", and that "I was attracted to this story, but I don't think the second one would have the thing I would need to get me interested".