I told you Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II’s box office was headed for disaster, and now Paramount seems to have thrown in the towel, with the film set to release digitally just 33 days after its theatrical debut.
Digital on Dec. 24
The film, starring Pedro Pascal and Paul Mescal, reportedly has a massive $350 million budget but has only recently crossed $400 million worldwide at the box office.
In just three days, Gladiator II will be released digitally on December 24, effectively marking the end of its theatrical run. Similarly, Joker 2 and Borderlands were released digitally after only three weeks in theaters. Typically, movies have a 45 day release in theaters before hitting streaming but we see Paramount has chosen to drop Gladiator II two weeks early, obviously hoping to bank on Christmas.
You can’t have it both ways
For a comparison, Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam—considered a box office bomb by the trades with a budget $100 million less—ended with a similar gross as Gladiator II’s current $400M. Yet sites like Deadline and related trades (all owned by the same company) continue to portray Gladiator II as an overwhelming success.
If Gladiator II finishes around $500 million worldwide, its profit will likely be similar to that of Black Adam—meaning not much.
Russell Crow wins
Another detail the trades have avoided sharing with their audience is that, adjusted for today’s dollars, the first Gladiator—which premiered 25 years ago—earned $344 million domestically (Gladiator II currently stands at $149 million) and $825 million worldwide.
In other words, the original Gladiator grossed double what its sequel has, despite releasing 25 years earlier.
What happened?
Gladiator II got buried by the Thanksgiving and Christmas releases, and the fanboys didn’t show up. It can’t compete. Fangirls flocked to Wicked, families went to see Johnson’s Moana 2, and everyone is turning out for Sonic 3. At least Gladiator II isn’t alone—Disney’s Mufasa is also bombing spectacularly.
