Box Office: 'Gladiator 2' Passes $320M Worldwide as 'Anora' Top $24M Globally

In all of the Thanksgiving weekend box office news not related to 'Moana 2' or 'Wicked Part One,' as Denzel Washington has a new global grosser champion.

In the weekend’s box office news unrelated to Moana 2 or Wicked Part One…

Paramount’s Gladiator II held firm as the adult-skewing, non-fantastical and non-musical event film of the moment. The good news is that it will maintain the “big action movie for older kids or adults” designation (with Den of Thieves 2 offering support on the fringes) until Captain America: Brave New World. That’s especially if the Anthony Mackie/Harrison Ford superhero recommits to the “Tom Clancy in tights” sensibilities of The Winter Soldier and Civil War.

There’s a cruel irony in Paramount’s action event film waiting to be supplanted as the action epic of the moment by a Disney film that is part of a brand that Paramount made cinematically popular before the Mouse House up and bought Marvel for $4 billion. It’s doubly cruel that it’s a franchise that appropriated the stereotypical “1990s Paramount action thriller” template for mainstream success. Ridley Scott’s legacy sequel earned $30.7 million (-44%) in its second weekend, giving it a $44 million Wed-Sun haul and bringing its ten-day domestic cume to $111 million.

As noted earlier, Gladiator II is filling a space often occupied by the Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig 007 movies. From 1995 (GoldenEye) to 2015 (Spectre), the James Bond series was a big-budget, tentpole action spectacular for older and less fantastically inclined moviegoers during Thanksgiving and Christmas. If it continues like a Brosnan 007 flick, we can expect a total on par with Gladiator’s unadjusted $187 million domestic cume. Meanwhile, it earned another $27 million overseas, bringing its global cume to $321 million worldwide. 

It has become Denzel Washington’s biggest global grosser (obviously sans inflation) past American Gangster ($267 million worldwide in 2007). Domestically, it’s still behind Remember the Titans ($115 million in 2000), Safe House ($126 million in 2012) and American Gangster ($130 million in 2007), but give it a week. And yes, I’d give Denzel much credit for this one as a critical supporting character and an “I don’t care about Gladiator, but Denzel as a scheming baddie has my money!” added value element.

Conventional rates of descent suggest a $175 million domestic and $440 million worldwide finish. That would be a moral victory amid strong reviews, solid word-of-mouth and possible Oscar nominations, if not quite a rate-of-return success considering the $250 million budget. However, it’s the only game in town on this scale, give or take Kraven The Hunter, until Captain America 4 in ten weeks.

Skyfall legged out to $304 million domestically and ($1.1 billion worldwide) from an $88 million early November debut in 2012. That was partially because all of its competition was “for the fans only” tentpoles like The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 ($829 million) and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey ($1 billion). I’m not saying it’s an exact match, but folks like this Paul Mescal/Pedro Pascal/Denzel Washington epic, and it’ll provide a counterpoint to Sonic sequels, Middle Earth toons and Lion King prequels.

Red One posted a $12.8 million (-2%) Fri-Sun and $118 million Fri-Wed holiday haul. That will give Jake Kasdan’s “priced for streaming” $250 million Christmas comedy a $75 million 17-day cume. The Dwayne Johnson/Chris Evans action fantasy is still playing like a Tim Allen Santa Clause movie. December will determine if it ends up with closer to $125 million or $150 million domestic. We can assume that it’ll sell a bunch of ads for Prime Video’s ad-based tiers. However, it earned $5 million overseas (via Warner Bros. Discovery), and a $149 million global cume would have been disappointing under any circumstance. Christmas weighing it down overseas aside, most Dwayne Johnson flicks don’t pull 50/50 domestic/overseas splits. Unless now they do.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever earned $3.28 million (-4%) over the weekend for a $4.73 million Wed-Sun gross. That will give the Judy Greer star vehicle a $32 million 24-day total, days away from passing The Strangers Chapter 1 ($35 million) as Lionsgate’s biggest 2024 grosser. Yay for studio programmer, Veggie Tales-style “Don’t be an asshole!” faith-based flicks! This might not crawl past Jesus Revolution ($52 million), but that it’s even a question is a cause of optimism.

Sony’s Venom: The Last Dance will earn a $2.2 million Fri-Sun (-43%) and $3.1 million Wed-Sun weekend to bring its cume to $138 million. The $120 million superhero threequel has earned $469 million worldwide, which will probably be more than Madame Web ($100 million), Morbius ($163 million) and Kraven: The Hunter combined. It’s also more than Joker: Folie a Deux ($206 million) and The Marvels ($206 million) combined.

Angel Studios’ Bonhoeffer grossed $2.4 million (-52%) over the Fri-Sun portion of its $3.5 million Wed-Sun second weekend. Faith-based audiences are showing up for the same mainstream stuff as everyone else. That’s usually how it works every weekend, despite what the Internet will have you believe. The true-life biopic will have $9.7 million by tonight, meaning it’ll end its run with over/under $15 million domestic. That’s par for the course for a non-breakout Angel Studios title, which is fine if they budget accordingly.

A24’s Heretic grossed $957,000 (-57%) on weekend four and $1.48 million over the holiday for a $26.8 million domestic and $35.8 million worldwide cume. DreamWorks’ The Wild Robot will earn $670,000 (-68%) and $1 million over the holiday for a $142.5 million domestic and $321 million worldwide total. It has now quadrupled its opening weekend in North America and quadrupled its $79 million budget worldwide.

Searchlight’s A Real Pain, which is a real gem, grossed $665,000 (-39%) in weekend four despite losing 680 theaters. It was, frankly, a screen-loss blood bath for pretty much every non-tentpole this weekend. The unexpectedly crowdpleasing (but true to its grimmer subject matter) comedy will earn around $850,000 over the holiday for a $6.1 million domestic and $7 million worldwide cume.

Paramount’s Smile 2 will have $69 million domestic and $138 million worldwide on a $28 million budget. Focus Features’ Conclave lost 590 theaters. That seems like a mistake, considering the crowdpleasing “year-end prestige + trashy airport read” thriller is a solid consensus pick, even for families with slightly older kids. The PG-rated flick passed $30 million in North America. I’ll assume it’ll expand again amid awards wins/nominations.

Neon’s Anora will earn $560,000 over the holiday for a $12.8 million and $24 million global cume. That’s 2.7x Sean Baker’s pre-Anora filmography combined. Yes, it’s falling behind Parasite a bit ($14.4 million by the end of weekend six), but it’s still much closer — and for farther into its run — than I might have expected, considering the competition.

A24’s Queer, starring Daniel Craig, earned $189,000 ($27k per theater in seven multiplexes) and $296k over the Wed-Sun debut. That’s a promising start for the Luca Guadagnino-directed and Justin Kuritzkes-penned adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ novel. It will expand over the next month amid the Oscar season marathon.

Finally, because sometimes we deserve more than the truth but instead to have our faith rewarded, Mike Cheslik and Ryland Brickson Cole Tews’ modern classic Hundreds of Beavers has passed $500,000 in domestic grosses. It’s getting a 70-screen holiday reissue, and I’m going to try my best to attend accordingly.