The weekend box office did the kind of pre-Thanksgiving business that hasn’t been seen for many years. Wicked grabbed $114 million, with Gladiator II hoovering up $55.5 million domestic. This represented 4 out of 5 theater tickets sold in America this weekend between them.
Internationally they pulled in a further $164 million and $220 million respectively. Both are going strong, but with huge budgets and marketing spends they will need to show some legs too.
Wicked became the biggest domestic and global opening for a film based on a Broadway show and the biggest global opening of 2024 for a non-sequel.
Elsewhere, Red One continued to struggle, pulling in just over $13 million domestic in third place. In fourth was the religious production house Angel Studios with Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin which earned $5.1 million.
Venom: The Last Dance looks to be coming to the end of its time in theaters with $4 million in fifth. The top six was rounded out by The Best Christmas Pageant Ever with just over $3.5 million.
This week Moana 2 opens in some markets and is tracking huge.
This box office lands as Dark Horizons reports that the current top twelve of the highest-grossing movies of the year worldwide are sequels.
Inside Out 2, Deadpool & Wolverine, Despicable Me 4, Dune: Part Two, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, Kung Fu Panda 4, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Venom: The Last Dance, Bad Boys: Ride or Die, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Twisters, and Alien: Romulus take all those slots. Of course, this will all change when Wicked starts another week, but the outlook still looks rather grim for the original IP.