Box Office Round-Up ~ 11/27/24

By: [email protected] on

It’s not fair to expect every big new double bill to be the next Barbenheimer, but Wicked and Gladiator II certainly made an impact over the weekend before Thanksgiving. The long-in-development musical debuted with a massive $112.5 million opening weekend, the third best of 2024 and easily the best premiere ever for an adaptation of a stage musical. It will likely reach the top ten biggest grossers of the year by next week, and keep moving up the list from there.

Gladiator II, Ridley Scott’s sequel to his 2000 Best Picture winner, took second place with an equally impressive $55 million. It has a very good shot to overtake the original Gladiator’s $187 million domestic haul (which, to be fair, was a quarter-century ago… it would be more than double that in 2024 dollars).

Red One moved down to third place in its second weekend with $13.2 million, clearing $50 million overall. In fourth place, Angel Studios’ World War II drama Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin opened with $5 million, while Venom: The Last Dance likely had its last dance in the top five with fifth-weekend gross of $3.8 million.

Today (Wednesday) sees the pre-holiday release of Disney’s Moana 2, which will make for a crowded field at the box office over the extended Thanksgiving weekend. After that, expect the witches, gladiators and Polynesian demigods to dominate the month of December, with the biggest competition coming from Mufasa: The Lion King and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 the weekend before Christmas.

1.  Wicked ($112.5 MM)
Director: Jon M. Chu (UTA)
Writers: Winnie Holzman (CAA), Dana Fox (UTA)
Cast: Cynthia Erivo (UTA)
        Ariana Grande (CAA)
      Jeff Goldblum (CAA)

2.  Gladiator II ($55 MM)
Director: Ridley Scott (WME)
Writers: David Scarpa (Verve), Peter Craig (CAA)
Cast: Paul Mescal (CAA)
        Denzel Washington (WME)
      Pedro Pascal (CAA)

3.  Red One ($13.2 MM)
Director: Jake Kasdan (WME)
Writers: Chris Morgan (CAA), Hiram Garcia
Cast: Dwayne Johnson (WME)
        Chris Evans (CAA)
      Lucy Liu (WME)

4.  Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin ($5 MM)
Director: Todd Komarnicki (Gotham Group)
Writers: Todd Komarnicki (Gotham Group)
Cast: Jonas Dassler (Independent Talent Group)
        August Diehl (The Way)
      David Jonsson (CAA)

5.  Venom: The Last Dance ($3.8 MM)
Director: Kelly Marcel (WME)
Writers: Kelly Marcel (WME), Tom Hardy (Range Media Partners)
Cast: Tom Hardy (Range Media Partners)
        Chiwetel Ejiofor (CAA)
        Juno Temple (UTA)

Source: Box Office Mojo, The Numbers