The “Glicked” combo of Wicked and Gladiator II worked its magic over the weekend, driving a cumulative $206.3M from the North American box office—the best pre-Thanksgiving frame since 2013’s The Hunger Games: Catching Fire led the way in a $226.5M weekend. That’s a 78% improvement over the pre-Thanksgiving frame last year, when The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes headlined a $115.5M weekend.
1. Wicked
Universal Pictures | NEW
$114M Domestic Opening Weekend
$164.2M Global Cume
Universal Pictures’ Broadway musical adaptation Wicked bowed at #1 with $114M on 3,888 screens for a $29,321 Per Screen Average. Ticket sales for the musical’s opening weekend proved fan-driven and pre-sales heavy, with expectations that audiences will continue discovering the film through Thanksgiving weekend.
“We’re not at all surprised by this debut. Jon M. Chu’s direction is incredible,” said Jim Orr, President of Domestic Theatrical Distribution at Universal, in a conversation with Boxoffice Pro on Sunday. “The performances of Cynthia [Erivo] and Ariana [Grande] are absolutely captivating, and audiences are reacting accordingly. Our critical and audience reaction scores are off the charts. Anecdotally, we’re hearing about people showing up at theaters all across the country dressed up as the characters in the spirit of the movie. It’s so much fun when something captures the imagination and encourages people to get out to theaters and experience a film—that’s the best way to see Wicked, on the biggest screen possible with a large audience.”
Here’s how the 3-Day looked for Wicked…
- Friday – $46.48 million
- Saturday – $36.04 million
- Sunday – $31.48 million
Audiences were not turned off by Wicked being a Part One of Two, with CinemaScore a solid “A” and Rotten Tomatoes audience score of 97%. RT critical finalized at 90% (from initial 92%), which only aided word-of-mouth. Ticket buyers leaned heavily female at 72%, with 18-34 the biggest age bracket at 50%. Ages 35-55+ held 38% of tickets, while 17 or younger accounted for only 13%. That latter number indicates less-than-stellar interest from children and teens, which could ultimately cost the movie in weeks to come. Here’s how demographics were spread…
- Caucasian – 54%
- Hispanic – 21%
- African American – 13%
- Asian – 8%
- Other – 5%
“We saw an opportunity by moving it up to the weekend prior to Thanksgiving, to simply dominate a weekend and get a running start into the holidays: first Thanksgiving, then Christmas,” Orr tells Boxoffice Pro. “Quite frankly, I think we will be having a conversation well into next year as to how well this title continues to perform. I think it will be in theaters for quite some time.”
Overseas, the musical took in $50.2M across 17,000+ screens in 8,000+ locations, in line with Wonka and The Little Mermaid. The Top 3 territories were the UK/Ireland ($17.6M), Australia ($6.7M), and Korea ($4.7M). This is Universal’s biggest live-action opening of the year in 46 markets and the biggest opening for a stage musical adaptation in 42 markets. It also marks the biggest opening weekend for a Broadway-based adaptation globally, ahead of Universal’s own Les Misérables ($103M) and domestically ahead of Disney’s Into The Woods ($31.05M). That opening only represents the first 61 markets, with major territories like France, Germany, Japan, and China still to come. The Middle Kingdom, in particular, is getting primed for witchery given the current theatrical re-release of the Harry Potter film cycle set to conclude next weekend. Meanwhile, with Gladiator II hogging a large number of North American IMAX screens, Wicked pulled only a slim $4.1M in the large format ($6.8M globally).
One final factor in Wicked‘s success that cannot be overlooked was the marketing, a big part of which involved brand activations on the level of 2023’s Barbie and extensive in-theater merchandise.
“The extent to which theaters have gone to decorate their lobbies and make audiences feel welcome has been very gratifying. We have a lot of concession programs. We have 400 Brand Partners globally, and much of that has also made its way into theaters. We have the greatest marketing engine of this entire industry, and the campaign on Wicked is living proof of that. From a marketing and publicity standpoint, Cynthia, Ariana, Jon, and the entire cast all worked this title as hard or harder than I’ve ever seen any campaign work. They did everything we asked, and they were great at it.”
2. Gladiator II
Paramount Pictures | NEW
$55.5M Domestic Opening Weekend
$221M Global Cume
After a monster $87M international opening last weekend, Paramount Pictures’ Gladiator II hit the ground running domestically with a $55.5M #2 debut on 3,573 screens for a $15,533 PSA. That’s slightly below director Ridley Scott’s career-best opening for 2001’s Hannibal ($58M) and a smidge above 2015’s The Martian ($54.3M). It is a career-best domestic debut for star Denzel Washington, above the $43.5M generated by Scott’s American Gangster in 2007. That’s also the biggest November opening ever for an R-rated film.
Here’s how the 3-Day looked, including $6.5M in Thursday previews…
- Friday – $22M
- Saturday – $18.8M
- Sunday – $14.7M
A 71% RT critical score and 85% audience score is on par with the original (87% audience/80% critical). PostTrak overall came in at 4/5 stars with 82% total positive and 63% definite recommend.
Proving how good the counter-programming was, audiences for the Gladiator sequel were inverted from Wicked with 61% male/39% female, with age groups split evenly at 49% 18-34 and 48% 35+, with the biggest segment being age 25-34 (28%). Here’s how demographics looked, with an overall 44% multi-cultural mix…
- 56% – Caucasian
- 22% – Hispanic
- 12% African American
- 5% Asian
- 5% other
Gladiator II brought in $50.5M across 64 markets (including a $3M China debut) with a -42% drop for its second overseas frame. Worldwide, IMAX for Gladiator II drew $12.4M ($9.4M in North America), up from last frame’s $7M in strictly overseas theaters. Internationally, the movie has brought in $165.5M for an overall global total of $221M, making Gladiator II Scott’s 9th biggest worldwide hit above Kingdom of Heaven ($218.6M) and below Alien: Covenant ($238.5M). It is on track to match or smash the original Gladiator‘s $451.6M global cume, which is always a benchmark for sequel success.
National Association of Theatre Owners President & CEO Michael O’Leary said in a statement, “On behalf of the people who operate movie theaters around the world, congratulations to our studio partners and the creative community for one of the most successful November weekends ever at the box office. Once again, it’s clear that when healthy competition meets premium experiences, the marketplace thrives, and consumers win. The success of movies like Wicked and Gladiator II, not to mention hearty pre-sales already for Moana 2, demonstrates just how much movie fans of all ages enjoy going to the movies. Nothing tops the cinematic experience, and audiences are loving it. This is a tremendous catalyst for a strong box office going into December and the new year.”
Other Notable Performances
Amazon/MGM’s Red One slid its sled down to #3 in its second frame with $13.2M, giving it a -59% drop exactly in line with the second weekend of Black Adam. So far the Dwayne Johnson-led comedy-action fantasy has taken in $52.9M domestic and $117.1M worldwide.
Debuting at #4, Angel Studios’ WWII film Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin earned $5.12M on 1,900 screens for a $2,695 PSA. As with most faith-based releases it earned an “A” CinemaScore and RT audience score of 92% from its audience, although only 52% critical. That’s the second-highest opening for Angel this year after Cabrini‘s $7.1M bow.
Sunday’s Studio Weekend Estimates | Weekend 47 – 2024
Total 3-Day Domestic Estimates: $206.3M | (-__% vs 2023)
| Title | Weekend Estimate | % Change | Locations | Location Change | PSA | Domestic Total | Week | Distributor |
| Wicked | $114,000,000 | 3,888 | $29,321 | $114,000,000 | 1 | Universal | ||
| Gladiator II | $55,500,000 | 3,573 | $15,533 | $55,500,000 | 1 | Paramount | ||
| Red One | $13,284,603 | -59% | 4,032 | n/c | $3,295 | $52,909,550 | 2 | Amazon MGM Studios |
| Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin. | $5,120,013 | 1,900 | $2,695 | $5,120,013 | 1 | Angel Studios | ||
| Venom: The Last Dance | $4,000,000 | -45% | 2,558 | -863 | $1,564 | $133,825,476 | 5 | Sony |
| Best Christmas Pageant Ever, The | $3,500,000 | -33% | 2,279 | -741 | $1,536 | $25,515,822 | 3 | Lionsgate |
| Heretic | $2,233,199 | -55% | 1,622 | -1,608 | $1,377 | $24,766,851 | 3 | A24 |
| Wild Robot, The | $2,000,000 | -53% | 2,110 | -784 | $948 | $140,727,420 | 9 | Universal |
| Smile 2 | $1,110,000 | -62% | 952 | -1,510 | $1,166 | $67,759,010 | 6 | Paramount |
| Real Pain, A | $1,109,000 | -50% | 1,185 | n/c | $936 | $4,959,588 | 4 | Searchlight |
| Conclave | $1,100,000 | -61% | 1,013 | -1,364 | $1,086 | $28,964,055 | 5 | Focus Features |
| MET Opera: Tosca (2024) | $1,082,496 | 703 | $1,540 | $1,082,496 | 1 | Fathom Events | ||
| Hello, Love, Again | $931,002 | -58% | 255 | -4 | $3,455 | $4,727,013 | 2 | Abramorama |
| Anora | $675,000 | -62% | 500 | -1,000 | $1,350 | $12,022,018 | 6 | Neon Rated |
| We Live in Time | $157,248 | -86% | 263 | -897 | $598 | $24,496,582 | 7 | A24 |
| Here | $85,000 | -90% | 350 | -1,424 | $243 | $12,152,695 | 4 | Sony |
| All We Imagine as Light | $64,986 | 19 | $3,420 | $125,312 | 2 | Janus Films | ||
| Small Things Like These | $59,730 | 70 | $853 | $1,390,556 | 3 | Roadside Attractions | ||
| Flow | $50,764 | 2 | $25,382 | $50,764 | 1 | Janus Films | ||
| Outrun, The | $18,811 | 12 | $1,568 | $988,083 | 8 | Sony Pictures Classics |
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