By Liz Moyer
Hollywood's two holiday movie blockbusters, Wicked and Gladiator II, brought in nearly $170 million in domestic box office sales for their opening weekends, according to estimates from Comscore.
Wicked, distributed by Comcast-owned Universal, was the top draw, with domestic sales of $114 million, while Paramount's Gladiator II sold $55.5 million.
Studios were hoping for a repeat of the summer 2023 phenomenon known as Barbenheimer, when moviegoers flocked to see both Warner Bros. Discovery's Barbie and Universal's Oppenheimer.
Hollywood has been struggling to recover from last year's actors and writers strikes, which hampered production and pushed big premieres later in the calendar. So far this year, counting box office sales through Sunday, domestic releases have sold $7.3 billion, down 10.7% from the same time in 2023, according to Comscore.
While Wicked was the weekend's top film globally, with estimated global box office sales of $164.2 million, Gladiator II set a record from the biggest domestic November opening for an R-rated film, according to Comscore's senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian.
Gladiator's worldwide box office totals $221 million, which "bodes well for a strong hold as the film heads into the Thanksgiving holiday," Dergarabedian said.
Walt Disney jumps into the mix on Wednesday with the release of its animated Moana 2.
Write to Liz Moyer at liz.moyer@barrons.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 24, 2024 13:21 ET (18:21 GMT)
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