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

Wicked” is pocketing lots of green, with the Universal release coming in on the upper side of projections to head toward the third-biggest domestic opening of the year. Now forecasting a $117 million sum for the weekend,

Globally, Wicked will see the biggest opening weekend for a film based on a Broadway adaption, ahead of Les Miserables ($103M); the 6 th biggest opening weekend of 2024 worldwide; and the 4th biggest opening weekend ever globally for a musical, ahead of The Little Mermaid ($163.6M).

Between them, the two very different Thanksgiving tentpoles are capturing almost every adult demo, reminiscent of Barbenheimer.

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

Here’s a breakdown of the Wicked box office, with details on how much it’s made and what records the musical adaptation has broken.

The two tentpoles are kicking off what's expected to be the biggest Thanksgiving in history at the domestic box office, which welcomes 'Moana 2' on Wednesday.

Whether “ Wicked ” and “ Gladiator II ” inspires an unorthodox double feature à la last summer’s simultaneous blockbusters “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” remains a question. Either way, there’s a box office battle brewing between Universal’s pink-and-green musical and Paramount’s bloody sword-and-sandal epic, both of which open on Friday.

By Lisa Richwine LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -"Wicked," the first installment in a two-part movie adaptation of a beloved Broadway musical, generated $19.2 million in U.S. and Canadian ticket sales from early screenings this week,

Glicked weekend is currently looking like a $120M opening for Universal’s Wicked after a $48.5M Friday plus previews, while Gladiator II is shaping up to a $23.5M Friday/previews turning into a $61M opening weekend.