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The box office competition between Gladiator II and Evil saw the latter title take the lead on the mutual opening weekend. Gladiator IIStarring Paul Mescal, it’s the sequel 24 years after Ridley Scott’s Best Picture winner, which sees the director return to the helm for another Ancient Roman epic. It opened at the box office the same weekend as the Evil release. The competition between the swords and sandals film and the adaptation of the first act of the popular musical prequel by The Wizard of Oz it was nicknamed “Glicked” in homage to 2023’s “Barbenheimer.”
Put Deadlinefrom Saturday morning, Evil took a confident lead Gladiator II with a projected 3-day opening weekend of $117 million at the domestic box office. Ridley Scott’s film is projected to have a $60 million opening weekend, which is nearly half of the musical’s projections. However, Evil is both a musical and a film with a female audience, both of which have a habit of being brought forward on opening weekends, so a downhearted Sunday could see both films ending the pre-Thanksgiving weekend with a gap lowest among its debut earnings.
What this means for Wicked and Gladiator II
The competition is far from over
So far, both films are on solid footing. Gladiator IIIts debut will nearly double the original’s $34.8 million debut, while Evil could earn one of the best opening weekends of the year. However, both have a long way to go, as films typically need to recoup two and a half times their budget to break even. Considering the approximately US$ 150 million Evil budget and the even larger Gladiator II budget, estimated between US$210 and US$250 million, the former will likely need to earn at least $375 million, while the latter will likely have to reach $575 million or more.
Considering the fact that international revenues have not yet been factored in for its opening weekend, Evil seems on the right track to reach that balance point. In fact, it could become one of the highest-grossing musicals of all time, as the best-performing stage musical adaptation is currently Mom Mia! ($609.8 million), which only had a $27.7 million debut. THE Gladiator II the release may go through more difficult times, with such a high budget. However, if it maintains its trajectory compared to the original film, it could very well gross more than US$900 million worldwide by the end of its run.
More to come…
Source: Deadline
This article covers a developing story. Keep checking back with us as we will add more information as it becomes available.