"Wicked" opened to $117 million this weekend to lead all films in North America, scoring the third-biggest opening weekend of 2024, according to industry estimates released Sunday.

Fueled by a massive marketing campaign and the memory of its source material's record-setting run on Broadway, the Universal Pictures release trails only "Deadpool & Wolverine," which opened to $211 million, and "Inside Out 2," which opened to $151 million, among this year's releases.

The musical fantasy was directed by Jon M. Chu, and features pop star Ariana Grande and British actress and singer Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, a young woman misunderstood because of her green skin who eventually becomes the Wicked Witch of the West from "The Wizard of Oz."

Director Ridley Scott's "Gladiator II" opened in second place with $55.5 million, Comscore reported. The sequel to 2000's Oscar winner for best picture stars Denzel Washington, Paul Mescal and Pedro Pascal.

"Red One," a Christmas-themed action comedy starring The Rock, slipped to third place with $13.2 million Friday through Sunday, one week after opening in first place with a $34 million weekend.

The historical drama "Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin" opened in fourth place with $5.1 million, followed by "Venom: The Last Dance," which grossed $4 million in its fifth weekend in theaters in the United States and Canada.

Rounding out the top 10 domestic releases were "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" ($3.5 million), "Heretic" ($2.2 million), "The Wild Robot" ($2 million), "Smile 2" ($1.11 million) and "A Real Pain" ($1.1 million).

This weekend's overall three-day box office haul was estimated at $205 million to $208 million. The year-to-date total is $7.306 billion -- down 10.7% from the figure at this time last year, according to Comscore.