A ‘Wicked’ good weekend at the box office
The adaptation of the hit Broadway musical opened with $114M while Ridley Scott’s ‘Gladiator II’ debuted with $55.5M.
Hello! Welcome to The Box Office Report for the weekend of Nov. 22-24, 2024.
1. Wicked
Weekend gross: $114M
Total domestic gross: $114M
Last weekend: New release
Percent drop: NA
Wicked fans have waited a long time to see the Broadway musical adapted for the big screen. That wait paid off this past weekend, as the Jon M. Chu-directed Wicked opened with $114 million.
The adaptation is the fourth movie to open at $100 million or higher in 2024, trailing Deadpool & Wolverine ($211.4 million) and Inside Out 2 ($154.2 million) and squeaking past Beetlejuice Beetlejuice ($111 million).
Wicked’s debut is by far the biggest of Chu’s directorial career, topping G.I. Joe: Retaliation’s $40.5 million, Justin Bieber: Never Say Never’s $29.5 million and Crazy Rich Asians’ $26.5 million.
Expect Wicked to keep adding to its box office haul in a big way over Thanksgiving week. While it’ll have competition from Gladiator II and Moana 2, I’d imagine Wicked diehards will want to see this movie more than once, especially once Universal gets the singalong showings up and running.
Will Wicked: Part Two be able to capitalize on the first installment’s opening weekend next November? Or will fans who didn’t realize the studio had split the musical into two movies skip the second part?
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2. Gladiator II
Weekend gross: $55.5M
Total domestic gross: $55.5M
Last weekend: New release
Percent drop: NA
When I saw that Gladiator II opened with an estimated $55.5 million, it felt like a bit of a letdown. Going into the weekend, it looked like director Ridley Scott’s sequel was going to crack $60 million (Wicked was on pace to open with at least $120 million at one point too), but it’s still a great opening weekend for an R-rated movie.
The original Gladiator opened with $34.8 million back in 2000. Thanks to a decade and a half of inflation, Gladiator II easily topped that number. It’s the second best opening weekend in Scott’s directorial career, squeezing right in between Hannibal ($58 million) and The Martian ($51.1 million).
