Gladiator II had a pretty strong opening at the box office this past weekend, and it is currently tracking to outgross most of Ridley Scott’s immense filmography. The film raked in $55.5 million domestically this weekend. It also opened in some regions internationally a week earlier, so this now brings its worldwide gross to $221 million. These are impressive numbers, especially considering that Universal’s Wicked released day-and-date with Gladiator II, another one of the most anticipated films of the year. Wicked unsurprisingly topped it with $112.5 million, but needless to say it was a strong weekend for theaters.
Gladiator II currently sits as the ninth highest-grossing film in Ridley Scott’s impressive 27-film lineup. At this point it will easily pass less successful films such as Alien: Covenant ($238.5 million), Hannibal ($250.1 million) and Robin Hood ($322.4 million). The real question is whether Gladiator II will be his highest-grossing film. The top three are currently the Alien prequel Prometheus ($402.4 million), this film’s predecessor, Gladiator ($451.7 million) and the Matt Damon-led The Martian ($653.6 million).
With positive word-of-mouth, the film certainly has a shot to be Ridley Scott’s highest-grossing film of all time. However, with a staggering budget of between $210 and $310 million, it is unlikely that the film will be one of his most profitable. It is estimated that the film will need to make well over $500 million just to break even. Still, Gladiator II could have a long tail and stay in theaters through the holidays. With upcoming films such as Moana 2, Mufasa: The Lion King and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 filling out the December lineup, it may struggle to keep screens. However, there is nothing that quite competes with the niche that Gladiator II fills, so it could easily hold its own.
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