[Source: Reuters]

The musical adaptation “Wicked” and action epic “Gladiator II” racked up a combined $270.2 million in global ticket sales over the weekend, a gift to cinemas heading into what may be a record-setting holiday season.

The robust box office returns provided reassurance to Hollywood, which has weathered cost-cutting and layoffs amid forecasts of the death of cinema as consumers gravitated to streaming video services.

It was the biggest opening weekend for a film based on a Broadway musical, ahead of the global debut of Universal’s 2012 release “Les Miserables,” according to the studio.

“Gladiator II” hauled in $106 million around the world, including $55.5 million from domestic sales. The Paramount Pictures (PARA.O), opens new tab film is the sequel to a movie that won the best picture Oscar two decades ago. The film, which was released last weekend outside the U.S., had an overall box office tally of $221 million.

The two films, dubbed “Glicked” by fans, brought in $169.5 million at domestic theaters, helping lift the weekend box office to $201.9 million. It’s the highest-grossing weekend in North America since the July opening of “Deadpool & Wolverine,” according to Comscore.

Still, the two films delivered a much-needed jolt to movie theaters, after anticipated fall films such as “Joker: Folie a Deux” and “Venom: The Last Dance” underperformed at the box office.

The fervor was a positive sign for theater chains such as AMC Entertainment (AMC.N), opens new tab, Cineplex (CGX.TO), opens new tab and Cinemark (CNK.N), opens new tab that are looking ahead to another major release, Walt Disney’s (DIS.N), opens new tab animated “Moana 2” this week.

Movie ticket sales in the U.S. and Canada have hovered below pre-pandemic levels as cinemas grapple with competition from streaming and the disruptions from the last year’s Hollywood strikes.

Sunday’s tallies brought year-to-date domestic ticket sales to $7.3 billion, down 10.6% from the same time in 2023, according to Comscore.

Studios and theater owners are hopeful that “Moana 2” will lead next weekend to the strongest Thanksgiving-period sales in history.

Box office analysts say ticket sales from Thanksgiving through the end of the year could rank as the biggest in cinema history. The holiday season record of $2.5 billion was set in 2017, led by the “Star Wars” film “The Last Jedi.”

Universal, a unit of Comcast, spent roughly $160 million to make the first “Wicked” movie, a sum that does not include tens of millions more for marketing ranging from a Super Bowl ad to hundreds of “Wicked” products.

In a campaign reminiscent of the hoopla surrounding “Barbie,” “Wicked” tie-ins include pink and green drinks at Starbucks, a fashion line at Target and a Betty Crocker cupcake mix.

The second “Wicked” film is scheduled for release in November 2025.

Other films coming before year-end include Walt Disney’s “Mufasa: The Lion King,” Paramount’s “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” and Searchlight Pictures’ “A Complete Unknown,” starring Timothee Chalamet as musician Bob Dylan.