‘Glicked’ fails to match ‘Barbenheimer’ at box office but still ends post-summer slump

nme.com:

Gladiator 2 and Wicked hasn’t had the same impact as last year’s Barbenheimer phenomenon, but it has breathed new life into the box office with huge takings.With a combined $270million (£214.6milion) in worldwide ticket sales over the weekend, it was the third-biggest opening weekend of the year, behind Deadpool & Wolverine and Inside Out 2.

It was also a record for a Broadway musical adaptation.Jon M. Chu’s film debuted with $114million (£90.6million) domestically and $164.2million (£130.5million) globally for Universal Pictures, according to studio estimates (via The Guardian) yesterday (November 24).Gladiator 2 meanwhile, opened with $55.5million (£44.1million) domestically and it added $50.5million (£40.1million) internationally.It was hoped that the Glicked effect, would match the Barbenheimer phenomenon but experts already said over the weekend that may well not have been the case.Plus, the domestic grosses in 2023 – $162m (£128.7million) for Barbie and $82m (£65.1million) for Oppenheimer – were also higher.

The weekend was also more a triumph of Wicked than it was of Glicked.Tim Richards, CEO of Vue cinemas, said that, unlike Barbenheimer, there’s little evidence of movie-goers booking double bills to see both films. “People are, however, booking both movies pretty extensively right now,” he said. “The word of mouth has been very strong, and all social media has been on fire.”He went on to say that Wicked is going to be “absolutely extraordinary”. “We’ve sold almost a quarter of a million tickets before a single screening – that’s more pre-sales than Barbie.

They’re talking of an opening weekend of somewhere between $160m and $200m.”Ahead of the weekend, Richards said he believed Wicked could be the biggest film.