Moviegoers looked to the western sky this weekend in record numbers, as “Wicked” defied expectations by earning a whopping $114 million at the U.S. box office. That’s the best opening weekend ever for a film adaptation of a Broadway musical,

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

With a combined $270 million in worldwide ticket sales, “Wicked” and “Gladiator II” breathed fresh life into a box office that has struggled lately, leading to one of the busiest moviegoing weekends of the year.