With a combined $270 million 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 $114 million domestically and $164.2 million globally for Universal Pictures, according to studio estimates 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, the AP reports.
Ridley Scott's Gladiator II, a sequel to his 2000 best picture-winning original, launched with $55.5 million in ticket sales. With a price tag of around $250 million to produce it, Gladiator II was a big bet by Paramount Pictures to return to the Coliseum with a largely new cast, led by Denzel Washington and Paul Mescal. While it opened with a touch less than the $60 million predicted in domestic ticket sales, Gladiator II has performed well overseas. It added $50.5 million internationally. The collision of the two movies led to talk of the Barbenheimer effect of last year, when Barbie and Oppenheimer launched simultaneously. The nickname this time, Glicked, wasn't as catchy, and the cultural imprint was notably less. Few people sought out a double feature this time.
Below are estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at US and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
- Wicked, $114 million.
- Gladiator II, $55.5 million.
- Red One, $13.3 million.
- Bonhoeffer: Pastor Spy Assassin, $5.1 million.
- Venom: The Last Dance, $4 million.
- The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, $3.5 million.
- Heretic, $2.2 million.
- The Wild Robot, $2 million.
- Smile 2, $1.1 million.
- A Real Pain, $1.1 million.
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