Gladiator II has finally outgrossed the original hit. The 2024 Ridley Scott Roman historical epic, which stars Paul Mescal as the son of Russell Crowe’s original тιтle character, is a sequel to Scott’s 2000 movie Gladiator, which won Best Picture alongside four other Oscars on top of becoming the second highest-grossing movie of the year with a huge $451.7 million box office total worldwide. The Gladiator II release kicked off the weekend before U.S. Thanksgiving in 2024 and concluded its eighth week in theaters on Thursday, January 16.
Per Collider, Gladiator II has reached a worldwide box office total of $454 million as its ninth weekend in theaters begins. In addition to seeing the movie fly past Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (which made $451.1 million worldwide) to become the 11th highest-grossing movie of 2024 overall, this total is $2.3 million higher than the original movie’s worldwide gross (as calculated by The Numbers). This makes Gladiator II the victor between the two movies after eight long weeks at the box office.
What This Means For Gladiator II
The Original Gladiator Still Wins By Other Metrics
This major milestone proves that the new Ridley Scott movie is a major box office contender in its own right, in spite of the fact that its theatrical run has been overshadowed by the runaway success of the Broadway musical adaptation Wicked, which debuted on the same day and has outpaced it at every turn, most recently rising past $700 million worldwide. However, Gladiator II reaching the same level as the original smash hit establishes both movies as part of a viable franchise after two decades of the 2000 тιтle being a standalone release.
The sequel’s reported production budget of $210 million is more than twice the original’s…
Unfortunately, there are still two factors that limit the success of the Gladiator II box office somewhat. The first is inflation, because the worldwide gross of the original movie actually amounts to about $831 million in 2024, which is just $77 million shy of being exactly double the current gross of the new movie. Additionally, the sequel’s reported production budget of $210 million is more than twice the original’s $103 million, giving it a much higher break-even point compared to the original hit and making its potential profit margins much slimmer.
Our Take On The Gladiator II Box Office
Ridley Scott’s Movies Could Do With тιԍнтer Budgets
Gladiator II has proven itself to be yet another recent Ridley Scott тιтle to have its success undermined by its large budget after 2023’s Napoleon, which grossed $221.4 million against a reported $200 million budget. While his movies can still connect with audiences, as the box office results of both тιтles prove, if the prolific director reduced the price tags of his future projects, they would likely be unquestionable successes in a way that his recent output has not proved to be.
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Source: Collider & The Numbers
