‘Wicked’ defies box office gravity to debut at No. 1 film worldwide

Moviegoers got Evil this weekend, propelling the long-awaited adaptation of the beloved Broadway hit to the top of the box office charts across the globe.

Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande’s green and pink magic conjured up $114 million in U.S. box office sales, averaging $29,321 across 3,888 theaters.

Jon M. Chu’s eye-opener, which also stars Michelle Yeoh, Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum and Bowen Yang, has earned $164.2 worldwide as of Sunday.

Gladiator II claimed to be no. 2 at the box office this weekend. Ridley Scott’s directorial return grossed $55.5 million across 3,573 theaters in its domestic debut, setting the record for the biggest November opening for an R-rated film.

Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal and Denzel Washington star in the follow-up to Russell Crowe’s Oscar-winning turn in the 2000s Gladiator. The two-decade-later sequel earned an additional $50.5 million internationally for a global total of $221 million.

Audiences also felt festive this weekend with the Chris Evans/Dwayne Johnson Santa bounty hunter comedy Red One lands his sled in slot no. 3. Another $13.3 in ticket sales gives director Jake Kasdan’s film a nice-not-cheeky domestic total of $133.8 million after two weeks of release.

At no. 4 on the ticket list, the literally named Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin. — seriously, that’s right there in the title! – grossed $13.28 million in its debut weekend across 1,900 theaters nationwide. Bonhoeffer tells the story of a preacher at the center of a plot to assassinate Hitler. (See that? Pastor, spy, assassin.)

Rounding out the top five movies of the weekend was Venom: The Last Dance. Entering its second month of release, the R-rated Tom Hardy super(anti)hero sequel earned another $4 million for a total haul of $133.8 million.

Claimed the six to 10 places domestically this weekend was The best Christmas competition ever ($3.5 million)Heretics ($2.23 million)The wild robot ($2.0 million)Smile 2 ($1.11 million), and A real pain ($1.1 million).

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Globally, the weekend’s top five films mirror the US chart, except for No. 4, which saw Chinese comedy-drama Her History pulling in $16.6 million in its debut weekend.

Her History centers its tale on two women, an unemployed single mother and her seemingly chipper new neighbor.