Gladiator IIhas reached a tremendous global box office gross that places it in the upper echelon of Ridley Scott’s filmography. The director, who also helmed the original 2000 movie, has returned with the belated sequel, which follows Lucius (Paul Mescal), the son of Russell Crowe’s original character Maximus, as he seeks revenge against the Roman empire while fighting in the gladiator arena. TheGladiator IIreleasewas given a pre-Thanksgiving debut oppositeWickedin domestic theaters, though it opened in certain international markets a week earlier.
PerVariety, as of Sunday morning,Gladiator IIis projected to take in a 3-day domestic opening weekend gross of $55.5 million. That total, combined with its international grosses from the first ten days of its run,brings its cumulative worldwide box office total to $221 million. Not only does that make the movie the 17th highest-grossing movie of the year so far, it has already outgrossed the overall worldwide grosses of 19 of the 27 major releases that Scott has previously directed over the years, including 1979’sAlien($188 million) and 1982’sBlade Runner($39.6 million).
What This Means For Gladiator II
It Has A Shot At No. 1
One of the Scott films that the new movie has not yet outgrossed is the originalGladiator, which earned $451.7 million worldwide, becoming the second highest-grossing movie of 2000 behindMission: Impossible II. However, there arequite a few movies in his filmography that the new movie will likely surpass within one more week, includingAlien: Covenant($238.5 million) andExodus: Gods and Kings($268.3 million). Below, see a breakdown of all eightRidley Scott moviesthat have earned more thanGladiator II’s current global gross:
$653.6 million
$451.7 million
$402.4 million
$250.1 million
$322.4 million
Exodus: Gods and Kings(2014)
$268.3 million
$267.9 million
Alien: Covenant(2017)
$238.5 million
Gladiator IIreviews, which have earned the movie a Certified Fresh score of 71% on Rotten Tomatoes, have not been quite as positive as those for the original, which is Certified Fresh at 80%. However, the audience scores for both movies are about equal, with the original earning 87% and the sequel earning 84%. This means that word of mouth for the two movies could be similar, in which case, if it keeps up its current trajectory relative to the original,it could eventually gross $740 million or more worldwide, which would easily make it the highest-grossing Ridley Scott movie.
Our Take On The Gladiator II Global Box Office
The Movie Needs To Be Huge In Order To Succeed
It is likely a good thing forGladiator IIthat it is on track to become one of the director’s highest-grossing movies, because it also comes with a costly production budget estimated to be between $210 and $310 million. Because movies typically need to earn back two and a half times their price tags in theaters, thiscould place its break-even point somewhere between $525 and $775 million, which are totals that in and of themselves either exceed every movie Ridley Scott has previously made or fall just below his No. 1 movie,The Martian.
Gladiator II
Cast
Gladiator 2 is the follow-up to Ridley Scott’s award-winning film Gladiator from 2000. Scott returns to direct the sequel, with Paul Mescal staring as Lucius, alongside Denzel Washington and Joseph Quinn as the villain Emperor Geta. Gladiator 2 had been stuck in development hell for years before a script written by David Scarpa finally moved forward.
