Wicked and Gladiator II make gravity-defying debuts at the weekend box office

NEW YORK — With a combined $270 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 $114 million domestically and $164.2 million globally for Universal Pictures, according to studio estimates Sunday.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 $55.5 million in ticket sales.With a price tag of around $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 $60 million predicted in domestic ticket sales, “Gladiator II” has performed well overseas.

It added $50.5 million internationally.Going into the weekend, box office was down about 11% from last year and some 25% from pre-pandemic times.That meant this week’s two headline films led a much-needed resurgence for theaters.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 ...