The highly anticipated “Wickediator” weekend is finally upon us, as Part One of Jon M. Chu’s Broadway adaptation premiered on the 2024 movie calendar on the same day as Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II. The witchy Wicked took top billing — and broke some records in the process — as it handily defeated the Roman Empire with its $114 million three-day opening. Earnings for the Paul Mescal epic were nothing to sneeze at, though, as Scott's sequel finished with domestic ticket sales totaling $55.5 million, as the movies combined to make up the lion’s share of one of the best weekends of the year with $205 million in overall revenue.
Banking on the assumption that more women would be interested in Wicked, while men would be buying tickets for Gladiator II, paid off (though hopefully many will catch both) as it led to the most successful pre-Thanksgiving week since 2013. Check out how all the chips fell (via The Numbers) on the chart below, then we’ll break it all down.
| TITLE | WEEKEND GROSS | DOMESTIC GROSS | LW | THTRS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Wicked* | $114,000,000 | $114,000,000 | N/A | 3,888 |
| 2. Gladiator II* | $55,500,000 | $55,500,000 | N/A | 3,573 |
| 3. Red One | $13,284,603 | $52,909,550 | 1 | 4,032 |
| 4. Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin* | $5,120,013 | $5,120,013 | N/A | 1,900 |
| 5. Venom: The Last Dance | $4,000,000 | $133,825,000 | 2 | 2,558 |
| 6. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever | $3,500,000 | $25,515,822 | 3 | 2,279 |
| 7. Heretic | $2,233,199 | $24,766,852 | 4 | 1,622 |
| 8. The Wild Robot | $2,000,000 | $140,727,000 | 5 | 2,110 |
| 9. Smile 2 | $1,110,000 | $67,759,000 | 6 | 952 |
| 10. A Real Pain | $1,109,000 | $4,959,588 | 9 | 1,185 |
Wicked Earns Best Opening Ever For A Broadway Adaptation
The musical starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo was expected to draw in fans, regardless of their familiarity with the book or Broadway production. Critics said the adaptation defied gravity, and our own Riley Utley gave Wicked a perfect 5-star review. The movie seems to be living up to the hype, as it now boasts the most successful domestic opening for a Broadway adaptation, per Variety, with its $114 million beating out Into the Woods, which earned $31 million in 2014.
It earned the same honor on a worldwide scale, with its Week 1 global tally of $164.2 million beating the previous best Broadway adaptation, Les Miserables, which raked in $103 million across the globe on its opening weekend in 2012.
Wicked also boasts the fourth-best start ever for a musical, falling between Frozen II ($130 million in 2019) and Halle Bailey’s The Little Mermaid ($95.5 million in 2023). Overall, Wicked’s release was the third-highest of the year behind Deadpool & Wolverine and Inside Out 2.
With Gladiator II’s release falling on the same weekend as Wicked’s, the two powerhouses overshadowed the rest of the box office, with their combined $169.5 million making up 83 percent of the overall $205 million earned in domestic ticket sales. However, this double feature didn’t prove to be quite as strong as 2023’s “Barbenheimer,” which opened to a combined $235.5 million last July.
Wickediator’s promising opening-night numbers didn’t disappoint, though, because the estimated three-day totals marked the highest pre-Thanksgiving week earnings since the pandemic. With its $205 million in ticket sales, the weekend was on par with 2019, when Frozen 2 led the pack with $204.9 million, according to Deadline and the best weekend since 2013, when The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was at the top of a box office that brought in $226.5M.
Gladiator II Gets Huge International Bump As It Flies By Predecessor’s Earnings
Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II was released internationally on November 15, earning $165.5 million outside of the U.S. and Canada to date. When combined with this weekend’s domestic premiere winnings, it’s already amassed $221 million. That kind of success is going to be necessary to make back its massive budget. The film, which also stars Pedro Pascal and Denzel Washington (who critics are raving about), reportedly cost $350 million in production and marketing costs.
In 2000, Gladiator stayed in theaters for over a year, eventually earning a worldwide total of $451.7 million. Will the sequel have the same staying power? That remains to be seen, but it’s off to a promising start, as the 2024 movie’s $55.5 million is much higher than its predecessor’s three-day premiere earnings of $34.8 million.
Russell Crowe’s historical drama, however, received better reviews than Gladiator II. The first movie is graded an A on CinemaScore, while the sequel has a B. On Rotten Tomatoes, Gladiator pleased more critics, with an 80% Fresh rating compared to the current film’s 71%. We’ll have to see if Denzel Washington’s crowd-pleasing performance is enough to give the movie some longevity.
Speaking of the Training Day star, this is a big week for him and his family, as he also served as a producer for The Piano Lesson (streaming with a Netflix subscription), which stars his son, John David Washington, and marks the directorial debut for son Malcolm Washington. The film was amongst Netflix's Top 10 Movies on its premiere weekend.
Red One Sees Dramatic Week 2 Drop, But It’s Not All Bad For Dwayne Johnson
Red One may have won the box office for its debut weekend, but with the one-two punch of the films discussed above, there was really nowhere for Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson’s Christmas action-comedy to go but down. Its $13.3 million sophomore weekend is 59% behind Week 1, and even adding in its international bank for a worldwide total of $117.1 million, it’s going to be a long road for this one.
Actually, a long road is probably what Amazon MGM is hoping for, as the movie will need to live in theaters for a while if it wants to recoup its spendings. The Jake Kasdan-helmed project’s budget is estimated in the $200 million to $250 million range, so there’s no doubt the filmmakers had hoped to chip away at that total a little more in its first two weeks in theaters.
It’s also probably not the result Dwayne Johnson was looking for in his first big movie release since the disappointment that was Black Adam in 2022, but one shouldn’t feel too bad for the WWE superstar. He’s going to rebound, likely in a big way, when Moana 2 is released this Wednesday. And that brings us to our next topic.
How Will Moana 2 Shake Up Wickediator’s Success?
Both Dwayne Johnson and Auliʻi Cravalho are reprising their roles from the beloved 2016 animated movie for Moana 2, which hits theaters on Wednesday, November 27. Despite some trepidation from longtime fans like CinemaBlend’s Sarah El Mahmoud, first reactions to the Disney sequel have been largely positive — even without Lin-Manuel Miranda behind the music.
So what will that mean for this week’s Top 2? Wicked is likely to be affected more than Gladiator II, given an overlap in audience. Moana 2 — like Ariana Grande’s flick — is a musical, and both movies are suitable for younger audiences (unlike Ridley Scott’s R-rated affair).
However, both movies are likely going to drop if early projections pan out. Estimates have the animated sequel bringing in nine figures for its five-day debut, which would make Moana 2 just the fifth movie to do that this year (behind Deadpool & Wolverine, Inside Out 2, Wicked and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice). Only time will tell, so join me back here next Sunday to dissect all things box office.
