Wicked and Gladiator make gravity-defying theatre debuts

With a combined US$270 million (S$362.5 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 US$114 million in North America and US$164.2 million globally for Universal Pictures, according to studio estimates on Sunday (Nov 24). 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 US$55.5 million in ticket sales. With a price tag of around US$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 US$60 million predicted in domestic ticket sales, Gladiator II has performed well overseas. It added US$50.5 million internationally.

Going into the weekend, box office was down about 11 per cent from last year and some 25 per cent from pre-pandemic times. That meant this week's two headline films led a much-needed resurgence for theatres. 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.

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 – US$162 million for Barbie and US$82 million for Oppenheimer – were also higher.

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 per cent of ticket buyers for Wicked were female, while 61 per cent of those seeing Gladiator II were male.

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

Both movies pulled out all the stops in global advertising campaigns that spanned everything from Wicked Mattel dolls (some of which led to an awkward recall) to an Airbnb cross-promotion with the actual Colosseum in Rome. For Gladiator II, Paramount even took the unusual step of simultaneously running a one-minute trailer on more than 4,000 TV networks, radio station and digital platforms.

Though Wicked will face some direct competition from Moana 2, it would seem to be better set up for a long and lucrative run in theatres. Even 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 around US$150 million 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. Gladiator II will make up for some of that, however, with robust international sales. It launched in many overseas markets a week ago, earning US$87 million before landing in North America.