“Wicked” collected an additional $50.2 million at the international box office, bringing its global tally to $164.2 million. It marks the biggest worldwide opening for a film based on a Broadway show, supplanting Universal’s “Les Miserables” with $103 million in 2012.

Battling a 27 percent decline in domestic ticket sales compared with before the pandemic, studios left no marketing drum unthumped in releasing the movies.

Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande’s "Wicked" is dominating Paul Mescal and Denzel Washington’s “Gladiator II” this weekend at the domestic box office.