It was in many ways the biggest weekend of the year as far as the box office was concerned as both “Wicked” and “Gladiator II” hit theaters, making for quite the double bill. Was it quite as big, in terms of raw numbers, as “Deadpool & Wolverine” debuting to well over $200 million over the summer? No, but it’s rare that we get two movies this big that both put up big numbers releasing on the same day. The last time it happened was in 2023 when the two-headed monster of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” unofficially dubbed Barbenheimer, both had bombshell debuts.
In the end, both of those movies were monster hits, with Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” taking in $1.44 billion and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” taking in close to $1 billion, and to cap the whole thing off, “Oppenheimer” also won Best Picture at the Oscars. So comparing Glicked to Barbenheimer gets tricky because expectations when making such comparisons are instantly lofty. Still, with that in mind, let’s see how this pair of dueling blockbusters stacks up, shall we?
“Wicked” won the battle in the U.S. with the musical taking in $112.5 million, a record for an adaptation of a pre-existing musical. It came in just a touch under the weekend estimates, which had it at $114 million. Jon M. Chu’s trip to Oz also pulled in $50 million overseas for a $162.5 million global debut. Meanwhile, “Gladiator II” opened to a very respectable $55 million domestically. Ridley Scott’s long-awaited sequel had already been playing since last weekend overseas, however, and has amassed $165.5 million internationally, giving it a $220.5 million running total. So, Scott’s historical epic is winning the war abroad in the early going.
Neither of these films are losers. What we have is a breakout musical hit that is playing very well with women, while an R-rated, non-comic book movie for adults is breaking through with its intended audience both in the U.S. and around the world. It’s a win-win for the industry, much like Barbenheimer was.
The biggest difference between Glicked and Barbenheimer was the internet
The whole Barbenheimer phenomenon happened surprisingly naturally with the internet taking the ball and running with it. People began booking double features to see both “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” en masse. Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures didn’t have to prod the people of the world to make it happen. It was one of those freak occurrences that no amount of marketing money can buy. The internet similarly gave this weekend’s match-up a fun nickname in the form of “Glicked.” Twitter user Eqarti even cooked up some fan posters for the showdown (you can see a section of one of them at the top of this post).
To say the least of it, Glicked didn’t have nearly as much of an impact on the people of the internet, broadly speaking. It was memed in certain circles and both movies were talked about an awful lot on their own terms, but the biggest difference is that the double bill itself didn’t become a broader cultural phenomenon.
For the industry at large, though, the lesson remains the same. Counter-programming, even at the highest levels, works. It’s also incredibly important. “Gladiator II” is making money all over the world and clearly benefited from being part of this dual movie showdown. “Wicked” is now poised to be one of the biggest movies of the year overall. It’s all good news. Just because the internet didn’t talk about Glicked on TikTok for weeks on end hardly matters: Both movies performed at the highest end of expectations, taking nothing away from one another in the process.
I spoke about this with /Film editor Ben Pearson on today’s episode of the /Film Daily podcast, which you can listen to below:
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“Wicked” and “Gladiator II” are in theaters now.