‘Gladiator II’ Scores Mighty $87 Million in International Box Office Debut

“Gladiator II” entered the international box office arena with $87 million from 63 markets, a powerful start for the quarter-century-in-the-making sequel to Ridley Scott’s 2000 best picture winner “Gladiator.”

This marks the biggest international R-rated opening weekend for Paramount Pictures as well as the best overseas debut for Scott, whose highest-grossing films include “The Martian” ($630 million globally), “Gladiator” ($465 million globally) and “Prometheus” ($403 million).

“Gladiator II” also scored in Imax with $7 million from 453 screens, standing among the company’s top three international debuts of the year.

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The sequel enjoyed the strongest launch in the United Kingdom with $11.4 million from 722 locations, followed by France with $10.3 million from 729 locations, Spain with $5.6 million from 411 locations, Australia with $5 million from 353 locations and Mexico with $4.7 million from 922 locations. The sword-and-sandal epic, starring Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal and Denzel Washington, touches down in North America and Canada on Nov. 22, where it’ll compete for screens with Universal’s big-budget musical adaptation of “Wicked.”

The sequel to “Gladiator” carries a $250 million-plus budget, so it needs to resonate at the global box office to be deemed a success. Reviews have been mixed with a 75% average on Rotten Tomatoes. The story picks up two decades after the original as Lucius (Mescal), the nephew of Joaquin Phoenix’s emperor Commodus, enters the Colosseum and seeks to return the glory of Rome to its people. Variety’s Owen Gleiberman called the film a “serviceable but far from great sequel.” Of course, “Gladiator II” has a lot to live up to as the follow to an Oscar best picture winner that was one of the highest-grossing films of 2000.

“Gladiator II” arrived far ahead of Dwayne Johnson’s Christmas-themed “Red One,” which added $14.7 million from 75 markets in its second weekend at the international box office. The film, which is being released by Amazon MGM in North America and Warner Bros. in the rest of the world, has generated $34 million domestically and $84.1 million globally to date. “Red One,” starring the Rock as Santa’s head of security, cost $250 million to produce and roughly $100 million to promote to worldwide audiences, so it’s banking on holiday cheer through Thanksgiving and beyond to justify that price tag.

Also this weekend, Universal and DreamWorks Animation’s “The Wild Robot” and Sony’s “Venom: The Last Dance” each notched box office milestones. The former, an animated adventure about a lonely robot who forms a community in the wilderness, crossed $300 million with ticket sales at $308 million globally, including $170 million from overseas markets. The latter, a threequel in the Tom Hardy-led comic book series, surpassed $400 million with revenues at $436.1 million worldwide, including $308.5 million internationally.