“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 another Universal musical, “Les Miserables,” with $103 million in 2012.

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.