Gladiator II' makes $106M in global box office | The Express Tribune

According to Reuters, the musical adaptation Wicked and action epic Gladiator II racked up a combined $270.2 million in global ticket sales over the weekend, a gift to cinemas heading into what may be a record-setting holiday season.

The robust box office returns provided reassurance to Hollywood, which has weathered cost-cutting and layoffs amid forecasts of the death of cinema as consumers gravitated to streaming video services.

"Moviegoers and box office pundits have been waiting for this weekend, and no one is disappointed," said Chris Aronson, president of distribution for Paramount Pictures.

Wicked, the first of two Universal Pictures films based on a Broadway prequel to The Wizard of Oz, topped the domestic and global box office. It pulled in $114 million at US and Canadian theatres, plus $50.2 million in international markets, for a global total of $164.2 million.

It was the biggest opening weekend for a film based on a Broadway musical, ahead of the global debut of Universal's 2012 release Les Miserables, according to the studio. Gladiator II hauled in $106 million around the world, including $55.5 million from domestic sales. The Paramount Pictures film is the sequel to a movie that won the best picture Oscar two decades ago. The film, which was released last weekend outside the US, had an overall box office tally of $221 million.

The two films, dubbed Glicked by fans, brought in $169.5 million at domestic theatres, helping lift the weekend box office to $201.9 million. It's the highest-grossing weekend in North America since the July opening of Deadpool & Wolverine, according to Comscore.

Glicked fell short of the $245 million Barbie and Oppenheimer opening frenzy in July 2023, which showed that the industry was rebounding from the pandemic and strikes that year by writers and actors.