"Wicked" and "Gladiator II" Set Records in their Debuts

[JamesG]

Weekend Box Office: Wicked Scores Third Biggest Opening of the Year - Ridley Scott's Gladiator II Racks Up a $55 Million Debut
by Erik Childress
November 24, 2024


While not quite Barbie numbers ($162 million opening), Wicked: Part One amassed $114 million in ticket sales for the third-best start of 2024 behind Deadpool & Wolverine’s $211.4 million and Inside Out 2’s $154.2 million.

Internationally it made an additional $50 million, giving it a worldwide tally of $164 million. That’s a good start in recouping its $150 million budget.





Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II has already grossed nearly $100 million internationally before even playing in the States.

It opened with the best start for an R-rated film ever in November, displacing a record held for 22 years by 8 Mile ($51.2 million).





Red One fell nearly $2 million from its estimates last weekend and is now down 59% to $13.2 million for a total of $52.9 million.

With a budget anywhere from $200 to $250 million and an international haul of just $64 million so far, this is looking like a disaster.





In fourth place is the latest from Angel Studios, Bonhoeffer, opening to $5.1 million in 1,900 theaters. That is a better start than their last two releases, Sound of Hope ($3.0 million) and Sight ($2.7 million), though not quite as high as Cabrini back in March ($7.1 million).

None of their films apart from their massive success story, Sound of Freedom, have grossed $20 million. Cabrini, their second best with $19.5 million, still carried an enormous budget of $50 million. But their brand still pulls in higher numbers than most attempts at limited platform releases.





Down to fifth place is Sony’s Venom: The Last Dance, which has kind of nosedived after three straight weeks at No. 1.

At $4 million in its fifth weekend, its total is now at $133.8 million. That is $24 million behind the pace of Black Adam and a cool million behind that DC offering’s fifth weekend. What once looked like a run towards $160 million domestic now looks like something in the $140-145 million range.

No matter, though, as it is over $456 million worldwide, and even if it comes in just shy of the half-billion milestone, it’s looking to become the studio’s biggest success of the year.





In sixth place, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is now putting together some space between it and its competitor, Heretic, for the past two weeks.

Another $3.5 million puts the film over $25 million, while Bryan Wood and Scott Beck’s anti-faith-based horror film made $2.2 million and carries a total of $24.7 million.

Both of these are on the positive sides of the ledger for Lionsgate and A24 and will still have audiences over the holiday next week. The pre-holiday horror of Smile 2 also lasted another week with $1.11 million for a total of $67.7 million and over $134 million worldwide.





In between them in seventh place is Chris Sanders’ The Wild Robot. One of the great success stories of the year, the animated film made another $2 million to bring its total nearly $141 million.

It has nearly reached bragging rights by earning more than four times its opening weekend. Right now it stands at approximately at a 3.93 multiple and, even better, $317 million globally.





Last week in 1,185 theaters, Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain grossed $2.22 million. This weekend in the same number of theaters it made $1.11 million. After four weeks of limited and semi-wide release, the film has made $4.9 million.

Sean Baker’s Anora lost 1,000 theaters this week, which resulted in just $675,000 and a total gross of $12 million, the filmmaker’s highest gross to date.



Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light had a solid $46,876 opening last week in three theaters. This week in 19, the film grossed $65,000 and has now made $135,000 to date for the Sideshow/Janus Films release, which also put out the dialogue-free animated film Flow in two theaters this weekend.

It grossed an estimated $50,764 for a per-theater average of $25,382. It will expand over the coming weeks.

https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com...g-of-the-year/





November 22-24, 2024: Weekend Studio Estimates

1. Wicked $114,000,000
2. Gladiator II $55,500,000
3. Red One $13,285,603 / $52,910,550
4. Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin. $5,120,013
5. Venom: The Last Dance $4,000,000 / $133,825,476
6. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever $3,500,000 / $25,515,822
7. Heretic $2,233,198 / $24,766,851
8. The Wild Robot $2,000,000 / $140,727,420
9. Smile 2 $1,110,000 / $67,759,010
10. A Real Pain $1,109,000 / $4,959,588