The robust box office returns provide reassurance to Hollywood, which has weathered cost-cutting and layoffs amid forecasts of the death of cinema as consumers gravitated to streaming video services. "Moviegoers and box office pundits have been waiting for ...

Wicked also boasts the fourth-best start ever for a musical, falling between Frozen II ($130 million in 2019) and Halle Bailey ’s The Little Mermaid ($95.5 million in 2023). Overall, Wicked ’s release was the third-highest of the year behind Deadpool & Wolverine and Inside Out 2.

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