The musical Wicked, based on a book inventing the backstory of the Wicked Witch of the West, premiered on Broadway and has been running on the West End for two decades.
In North America, the film adaptation raked in $46.48m on Friday (the data also includes Thursday premieres), and $36m on Saturday.
The audience skewed heavily female – 72% – and 67% were over the age of 25, which is a “massive victory” for Universal, Boxoffice’s Daniel Loria said.
The musical had the third biggest opening in the US this year – after Deadpool & Wolverine with $211m in July and Inside Out 2 with $154m in June.
Elsewhere, the soundtrack’s hits voiced by Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, including “Popular” and “Defying Gravity”, have soared into most-played lists on streaming services.
Also in North America, another reinvented classic, Gladiator II, following up on Ridley Scott’s 2000 epic, opened this weekend to $22m on Friday. It then earned $18.8m on Saturday.
The sequel is projected to make $55.5m over its opening weekend.
However, Mr Loria predicted that Moana 2, out on Wednesday in the US, could take the top spot of the three films in North America.
But with more people expected to see Wicked and Gladiator II over the holiday week, “we have potential of reaching the highest-grossing Thanksgiving weekend on record in North America by this time next week”, he said.
Cinemas in the US celebrated the performance on Sunday, which comes after years of disruption from the pandemic. The National Association of Theatre Owners heralded “one of the most successful November weekends ever at the box office”.