Wicked slays Gladiator II in ticket sales duel as new films boost box office

With a combined $270m 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.

Jon M Chu’s lavish big-budget musical Wicked, starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, debuted with $114m domestically and $164.2m globally for Universal Pictures, according to studio estimates on Sunday. That made it the third-biggest opening weekend of the year, behind only Deadpool & Wolverine and Inside Out 2. It’s also a record for a Broadway musical adaptation.

Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II, a sequel to his 2000 best picture-winning original, launched with $55.5m in ticket sales. With a price tag of about $250m to produce it, Gladiator II was a big bet by Paramount Pictures to return to the Colosseumwith a largely new cast, led by Denzel Washington and Paul Mescal. While it opened with a touch less than the $60m predicted in domestic ticket sales, Gladiator II has performed well overseas. It added $50.5m internationally.

The collision of the two movies led to some echoes of the Barbenheimer effect of last year, when Barbie and Oppenheimer launched simultaneously. The nickname this time, Glicked, wasn’t quite as catchy and the cultural imprint was also notably less. Few people sought out a double feature this time. The domestic grosses in 2023 – $162m for Barbie and $82m for Oppenheimer – were also higher.

For Universal, which distributed Oppenheimer last year, the weekend was more a triumph of Wicked than it was of Glicked.

“We saw an opportunity to dominate a weekend and get a very large running start into the Thanksgiving holiday,” said Jim Orr, distribution chief for Universal. “We’re very confident that it will play ridiculously well through the Christmas corridor and into the new year.”

But the counter-programming effect was still potent for Wicked and Gladiator II, which likewise split broadly along gender lines. And it was again the female-leaning release – Wicked, like Barbie before it – that easily won the weekend. About 72% of ticket buyers for Wicked were female, while 61% of those seeing Gladiator II were male.

“Standing on their own, each of these movies may have done pretty much what they did, but it’s hard to know,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore. “Raising awareness can indeed lead to an increase in box office. Let’s put it this way: They didn’t hurt each other at all.”

While Barbenheimer benefitted enormously from meme-spread word-of-mouth, both Wicked and Gladiator II leaned on all-out marketing blitzes.

The Gladiator IIcampaign featured everything from a much-debated Airbnb cross-promotion with the actual Colosseum in Rome to simultaneously running a one-minute trailer on more than 4,000 TV networks, radio station and digital platforms.

The Wicked onslaught went even further, with pink-and-green themed “Wickedly Delicious” Starbucks drinks, Stanley mugs and Mattel dolls (some of which led to an awkward recall). Its stars made appearances at the Met Gala and the Olympics.

“We had roughly 400 global brand partners on Wicked, so the campaign was inescapable,” said Orr. “And our cast, led by Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, worked so hard on this. They were everywhere. They did everything we asked them to do.”

Going into the weekend, box office was down about 11% from last year and some 25% from pre-pandemic times. That meant this week’s two headline films led a much-needed resurgence for theaters. With Moana 2 releasing Wednesday, Hollywood might be looking at historic sales over the Thanksgiving holiday.

“This weekend’s two strong openers are invigorating a box office that fell apart after a good summer,” said David A Gross, a film consultant who publishes a newsletter for Franchise Entertainment.

Though Wicked will face some direct competition from Moana 2, it would seem better set up for a long and lucrative run in theaters than Gladiator II. Though some have dinged Wicked for running long, at 2 hours and 40 minutes, the film has had mostly stellar reviews. Audiences gave it an “A” on CinemaScore. The reception for Wicked has been strong enough that Oscar prognosticators expect it to be a contender for best picture at the Academy Awards, among other categories.

Producers, perhaps sensing a hit, also took the step of splitting Wicked in two. Part two, already filmed, is due out next November. Each Wicked installation cost approximately $150m to make.

Gladiator II has also enjoyed good reviews, particularly for Washington’s charismatic performance. Audience scores, though, were weaker, with ticket buyers giving it a “B” on CinemaScore. The film will make up for some of that, however, with robust international sales. It launched in many overseas markets a week ago, and has already accrued $165.5m internationally.

Coming in a distant third place for the weekend was Red One, the Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans holiday movie turned action film. In its second week of release, the Amazon MGM Studios release grossed $13.3m to bring its two-week global haul to $117m. At a cost of $250m to make, Red One is the season’s biggest flop, though it could recoup some value for Amazon if it’s more popular once it begins streaming.

Final domestic figures will be released Monday. Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at US and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:

1. Wicked, $114m.

2. Gladiator II, $55.5m.

3. Red One, $13.3m.

4. Bonhoeffer: Pastor Spy Assassin, $5.1m.

5. Venom: The Last Dance, $4m.