Box Office: 'Gladiator II' Rebels With Not-So Revolting $22M Friday, Takes Aim At $60M Opening Weekend

Denzel Washington is helping Ridley Scott's legacy sequel in its quest for a $55-$60 million domestic debut, which would be excellent for an R-rated movie (especially one not based on a comic book).

In non-Wicked news at the Friday box office…

Paramount’s Gladiator II earned $22 million on Friday, including $6.5 million in Thursday preview showings. In terms of recent R-rated actioners, that’s behind the Deadpool trilogy ($47 million, $53 million and $96 million) and Logan ($33 million) but sits comfortably alongside the most recent Bad Boys ($24 million in 2020 and $22 million in 2024) and John Wick ($23 million in 2019 and $29 million in 2023 flicks. Granted, those films (aside from Deadpool 3) cost closer to $100 million than the reported $250 million spent on Gladiator II. While the Ridley Scott sequel runs 148 minutes, it’s A) shorter than Wicked Part One and B) shorter than John Wick: Chapter 4. But a strong showing is a strong showing.

With good reviews and solid buzz, plus otherwise disinterested folks showing up to watch Denzel Washington ham it up because he can, dammit, we should be looking at a $50-$60 million opening weekend. That’s an excellent start for any R-rated movie, especially one that isn’t (Joker, 300, Deadpool, etc.) based on a comic book. It’s essentially tied, in terms of tickets sold, with Gladiator’s $32 million launch in May of 2000. Noting positive variables (it’s an R-rated actioner that won’t scar your older kids), a lack of comparative competition and the generally post-debut solid legs we’ve seen from successful openers over the last year, I’d expect a domestic cume on par with its predecessor’s $188 million finish.

The issue with spending so much is whether that will be enough. Yes, the money is on the screen, and (like the comparatively “expensive” horror titles like the $28 million Smile 2 and the $67 million A Quiet Place: Day One) part of the pitch is its “spared no expense” spectacle. Still, it now essentially *must* match the global grosses of Gladiator ($456 million in 2000), The Last Samurai ($457 million in 2003) and Troy ($497 million in 2004) to qualify as even a long-term commercial success. However, that’s still in the realm of possibility (it opened with $87 million overseas last weekend), and (my legacy sequel issues notwithstanding) its relative quality should boost it both in theaters and post-theatrical.

However, I’m not inclined to give too much grief to an R-rated movie opening with over/under $60 million. This is the kind of “IP for IP’s sake” sequel that could have easily tanked due to audiences not giving too much of a damn about the abstract notion of a Gladiator sequel (sans Russell Crowe, no less). The film may be annoyingly reverential in that Halloween Kills/Rise of Skywalker fashion. Still, it provides big-scale entertainment for agnostics, colorful characters, creative action and angry-of-the-moment politics. While Paul Mescal is fine, adding Denzel Washington sealed the deal regarding the artistic benefit of the doubt and giving folks otherwise indifferent to the brand something to look forward to.

The other major opener was Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin. Todd Komarnicki’s World War II thriller, starring Jonas Dassler as the German theologian and pastor who participated in a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, earned $2.65 million on Friday for a likely $4.5 million Fri-Sun weekend. That’s par with Cabrini ($3 million Friday/$ 7.1 million) and The Story of Possum Trot ($3 million Thursday/$6.7 million Thurs-Sun), and we’ll see if it ends closer to the standard over/under $12 million finish or the $19 million total for Cabrini. Yes, Sound of Freedom was a lightning-in-a-bottle fluke, and that’s fine as long as the faith-based distributor keeps these stats in mind when budgeting production, acquisition and/or marketing expenses.

Regarding holdover news, Red One earned $3.34 million (-69%) on Friday for a likely $13.3 million (-59%) weekend and a $53 million ten-day total. Even noting the massive competition from Wicked 1 and Gladiator 2, that’s a more considerable second-weekend drop than the likes of Central Intelligence (-49% from a $36 million debut), Jungle Cruise (-55% from a $35 million launch) and Rampage (-44% from a $36 million opening weekend). It should level out after Thanskgiving, but it has to. I’m sympathetic to the complicated “greenlit for streaming, sent to theaters after the fact” variables. Still, it’s not like Amazon MGM Studios’ Dwayne Johnson/Chris Evans Christmas action comedy is some indie passion project from a boutique distributor.

Venom: The Last Dance will have $4.4 million (-40%) this weekend for a $134 million 31-day cume, while The Best Christmas Pageant Ever will earn $3.5 million (-33%) for a solid (for Lionsgate this year) $25.5 million 17-day cume. A24’s Heretic will earn $2.4 million (-51%) for a $24.9 million 17-day cume, while DreamWorks and Universal’s The Wild Robot will gross $2 million (-53%) for a $141 million domestic cume. Smile 2 will earn $1.27 million (-57%) for a $68 million 38-day total, while Focus Features’ Conclave will gross $1.15 million (-59%) for a $29 million 31-day cume. Finally, Searchlight’s A Real Pain will gross $1.01 million (-55%) for a $4.9 million 24-day total, while Neon’s Anora will earn $760,000 (-57%) for a $12.1 million 36-day cume.