‘Wicked’ Eyes $120M Opening, ‘Gladiator 2’ $61M

UPDATED, Friday at The Liked it the weekend currently looks like one 120 million dollars opening for Universal’s Evil after one $48.5 million Friday plus preview, while Gladiator II is taking shape $23.5 million on Friday/previews turn into one $61 million opening weekend at 3,573 locations.

In general, dinner projections are conservative, so we’ll see if it’s busy with ladies tonight and families into tomorrow, because Evil. According to Comscore/Screen Engine’s PostTrak, 71% women showed up last night. Gladiator II is more of the date-night movie with 61% men and 39% women showing up for Thursday screenings.

For the month of November, Evil currently ranks as the 10th biggest opening of all time at the domestic box office, while also poised to break the opening record for a film based on a Broadway musical, beating Stephen Sondheim’s Into the forest ($31 million). It’s also the third-biggest opening of 2024 year-to-date, ahead of Warner Bros’ Beetlejuice Beetlejuice ($111 million). Evil part 1before P&A, cost $150m. The Jon M. Chu-directed title is booked in 3,888 theaters and is currently expected to post an average of $30,800 per week. cinema.

PostTrak exits are strong too Evil with 5 stars for general audiences and parents, and 4 1/2 stars for children under 12. It’s a generational move, with the moms who saw it when it hit Broadway in 2003, when kids are now in their 30s, taking their own kids to the movie. Evil gets a 90% positive with a thorough 80% clear recommendation.

As we mentioned before, Gladiator II was always shaping up to be Ridley Scott’s biggest opening at the domestic box office, besting Hannibal ($58 million). It’s also Denzel Washington’s best start at state before American gangster ($43.5M), which was also a movie he made with Scott. As we told you earlier this week, the sequel that got a head start Evil abroad, has already crossed the century mark at the box office abroad. Gladiator II PostTrak outputs are also solid with 4 stars and a 77% positive.

Meanwhile, Amazon MGM Studios’ The red one see another friday off $3.4 million and another weekend off $13.5 million-58%, for a current total of DKK 53 million. USD on 4,032 sites. $200M-$250M Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans’ production passed the global $100M mark today.

Angel Studios has a wide release this weekend, the period drama thriller Bonhoeffer. Pastor. Spy. ONEppass in 1,900 places, which is similar $2.4 million today and $4.8 million for the weekend in fourth place. The Todd Komarnicki-directed and written thriller follows Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who joins a deadly plot to assassinate Hitler and risks his faith and destiny to save millions of Jews from genocide.

Fifth goes to Sony’s fifth weekend of Venom: The Last Dance with one $900,000 Friday and $4 million weekend, takes his domestic accounting to $133.8 million

FRIDAY IS UPDATED AFTER EXCLUSIVELY: Universal calls Evil part 1s previews at 19.2 million dollars.

This run for the Jon M. Chu-directed, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande-starring Broadway musical consists of Monday and Wednesday fan screenings, plus Thursday previews beginning at

Split: Monday’s Amazon Prime screenings generated $2.5 million at 750 theaters in the US. Wednesday previews grossed an additional $5.7 million from 2,000 theaters in the US and Canada. Standard previews yesterday in 3,300 theaters brought a total Thursday gross of $11M.

Just in terms of pure cash, Evil is just under Disney’s $23M 2019 prelim the lion king, and Warner Bros’ Barbie to $22.3 million. (the gross wsa from both Wednesday and Thursday shows). It’s way ahead of Disney’s 2017 live-action adaptation of Beauty and the Beast ($16.3 million). Updated gut from tracking this AM on Evil is $120M+. The other factor to keep in mind on films with a heavy female bias is that they can go flat on a Saturday, say. Barbie was down 32% off Friday/Previews and Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 fell 26 per cent But there are exceptions, especially on films that have a family factor, e.g. Beauty and the Beast decreased -2% between Friday and Saturday.

Paramount’s official R-rated track Gladiator II is $6.5 million at 3,200 locations. That preview figure is right up there with countless recent sequels that delivered different openings, including Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes ($6.6M previews, $58.4M 3-day), No time to die ($6.3M, $55.2M) and Bad Boys for Life ($6.3m, $62.5m). There are also Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny comp. Tracking’s updated forecast for the sequel epic directed by Ridley Scott and starring Paul Mescal and Denzel Washington is $59M-$66M. Rotten Tomatoes audience score is a healthy 84%.

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Watch: The running cue for 2024 box office through November 17 was $7 billion, $889 million behind the same period in 2023 and 9% ahead of the same period in 2022 (the Top Gun: Maverick ticket year). It’s all according to Comscore. From this weekend through New Year’s Eve, can we clear another $2 billion to get us to last year’s $9B finale?

PREVIOUSLY EXCLUSIVE: From New York City to Kansas and on to the City of Angels, the mob hits the theaters tonight as Universal’s long-awaited Evil part 1 and the Paramounts Gladiator II space for what is expected to be one of the richest weekends of the year. To date, the biggest weekend for all titles year-to-date was 26-28. July as of Comscore where Deadpool and Wolverine sent the entire marketplace to 285.3 USD million.

Early figures tonight – not attributed to any studies because they will be mum to tomorrow morning – are Evil casts an estimated spell $8 million alone tonight. But if you count Monday’s Amazon campaign previews and yesterday’s premium format fan shows, the total preview number flies to approx. $20 millionI hear As we told you earlier, we heard pre-sales were around $30m; But once there’s a must-see title for female moviegoers, they’re sure to book a date at the cinema. With walk-up business unpredictable, the prospects are wild too Evilwith a three-day total estimated between $130M-$150M. The argument at the lower end of the projection is that the Jon M. Chu-directed, Marc Platt-produced film is 2 hours and 40 minutes.

The biggest opening for any feature film is Jon Favreau’s 2019 The Lion King to $191.7 million; it had a running time of 1 hour and 58 minutes. The biggest opening for a movie based on a Broadway musical is Into the forest ($31 million). Universal’s Mamma Mia! successor, Mamma Mia! Here we go again, opened bigger to $34.9M, but it wasn’t based on stage musical IP. Evil has all the makings to overperform this weekend with a 90% certified fresh with critics and a 99% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

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Words cannot begin to describe the amount of marketing oomph Universal put behind this film, and more amazingly, they did it on a film adaptation of a Broadway musical – a genre that Hollywood has a love-hate relationship with. Evil‘s marketing playbook makes Disney’s promotional plans for Star Wars: The Force Awakens look like a grassroots guerilla stunt for a SXSW movie.

Granted, the way Uni made its preview money is apples to oranges compared to previous titles, but in terms of pure dollars, Evil‘s total cash is ahead Beauty and the Beast‘s $16.3M as well The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1‘s $17M, both female-skewed tentpoles. Beauty and the Beast clocked in at 2 hours and 9 minutes and opened to $174.7M, while Mockingjay 1 was 2 hours and 3 minutes and debuted to $121.8M.

Gladiator IImeanwhile is between $6.5M-$7M and that’s until Thursday alone. Please note that Paramount didn’t have big preview days ahead of time, just a little “Screen Unseen” sneak with 200 theaters. Critics really have nothing to complain about with the Ridley Scott-directed sequel at 72% certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Gladiator II‘s preview dough is related to that of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny ($7.2M Thursday), bringing it to a $60.3M opening. That’s about what Gladiator II expected to conquer on Sunday.

As we always say on Thursday, take these estimates with a grain of salt. If the studio reports lower, it does not necessarily mean that a film is without momentum.

RELATED: Where to watch ‘Gladiator’: Is Ridley Scott’s 2000 film streaming?

What was clear from Deadline’s rounds in theaters tonight is that if you want to wear your Wicca, you need to dress up and head over to the TCL Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard, or you’re going somewhere that isn’t a place like home: re Dorothy’s home in Kansas City, KS. Meanwhile, at AMC in Burbank, Calif., which is usually any movie’s top-grossing theater in the country on any given weekend, at 18.00 Imax. Gladiator II was sold out.

Natalie Sitek contributed to this report.

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