Box Office Battle: ‘Wicked’ beats ‘Gladiator II’ in big weekend

“Box Office Battle” is The Fly’s weekly roundup of what movies topped the weekend’s box office.

Comcast (CMCSA) subsidiary Universal’s “Wicked” won this weekend at the North American box office, coming ahead of “Gladiator II” with $114M. The movie ranks among the biggest openings of all time for a big-screen musical, and one of the top openings of 2024. “Wicked” earned an estimated $164.2M globally.

BOX OFFICE RUNNER-UPS: Paramount’s (PARA) “Gladiator II” placed number 2 with $55.5M for a global cume of $221M. Behind it was Amazon (AMZN) MGM Studios’ Christmas movie “Red One” with another $13.3M in its third weekend. “Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin.” Placed number 4 with a $5.1M debut. Rounding out the top five, Sony‘s (SONY) “Venom: The Last Dance” grossed an estimated $4M.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE:

• “Wicked” – $114M
• “Gladiator II” – $55.5M
• “Red One” – $13.3M
• “Bonhoeff: Pastor. Spy. Assassin.” – $5.1M
• “Venom: The Last Dance” – $4M

Other publicly traded companies in filmmaking include Lionsgate (LGF.B), Disney (DIS), Warner Bros. (WBD), and Apple (AAPL).