Box Office: 'Gladiator II' Tops Worldwide With $87M Overseas

Ridley Scott's pricey but well-received legacy sequel, starring Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal and Denzel Washington, opens domestically next weekend.

Red One may have been tops in North America (with $34 million), but the Christmas actioner’s $50 million global haul couldn’t compete with the muscular $87 million overseas debut of Gladiator II. The Paul Mescal/Pedro Pascal/Denzel Washington legacy sequel over-indexed with PLF screens amid the 63 markets, pulling in $7 million via 453 Imax auditoriums. The top-earning territories were — respectively — the United Kingdom ($11.4 million in 722 theaters), France ($10.3 million in 729 theaters) and Spain ($5.6 million, the second-biggest launch of the year behind Inside Out 2). Ridley Scott’s $250 million action melodrama, a 24.5-years later follow-up to his Oscar-winning Gladiator, set a milestone as Paramount’s biggest overseas R-rated opening weekend. With only China left to open, it also nabbed Paramount’s biggest overseas opening for a Ridley Scott movie, so suck it, Black Rain!