A box office battle is happening exactly a month from now, on November 22, 2024: Gladiator II vs Wicked Part 1. These two movies are coming out on the same day… and I feel like there’s not much conversation about it. Which is weird, I guess, because it’s setting up kinda the same situation as Barbenheimer, only it’s not really a thing, like not at all. I’m not saying it should be a huge preoccupation but isn’t it, at least, notable?
To mark the fact that we’re precisely a month out from its release, a new featurette has been released for Gladiator II. The film has been steadily picking up momentum over the last couple of weeks. As I wrote yesterday in my post about the Academy Museum Gala, there was an early screening for the movie a few days ago, and the reaction was very positive. So positive that Denzel Washington may have surged ahead as a lock for a Best Supporting Actor nomination.
There’s not that much Denzel, though, in this featurette. The focus instead is on Paul Mescal, who plays the lead, and also Ridley Scott who has never won a Best Director Oscar and whose odds for a win are steadily rising. At this point it looks like he’s in for a nomination for sure so the campaign over the next few months, no doubt, will be all about how he’s “due”.
To go back to the showdown between Gladiator II and Wicked, it’s an interesting difference in marketing, too. Wicked started promotion months and months ago and it feels like Gladiator is just making its push now. Two weeks ago, Matthew Belloni at Puck noted:
“A little movement on the Wicked vs. Gladiator II pre-Thanksgiving battle, with the musical taking a small lead in awareness on the latest Quorum early tracking chart. Though Moana 2, opening five days later, blows them both away in interest and awareness…”
A “small lead in awareness” despite the fact that they’ve been promoting Wicked all year – I’m curious to know how the respective marketing teams for both films feel about that ROI. And it just goes to show, again, how fractured all our streams are because in my world, nobody is talking about Moana 2; we’ve barely mentioned it here at LaineyGossip. But I don’t have kids, Sarah doesn’t have kids, so our algorithms aren’t pointing us in that direction.
For me, personally, I’ll go see both Gladiator II and Wicked, out of interest and not just professional necessity. The one I care about more though, and I don’t know why I feel apologetic about this, is Gladiator. I loved the original, so much that our first dog, Marcus, was named after Richard Harris’s Marcus Aurelius. Everything I’ve seen recently about Gladiator II is getting me all jacked. There’s the Denzel factor, obviously. But also Paul Mescal who appears to be ready for his Movie Star moment. Up to this point in his career, while he is very internet famous, Paul’s work has been in quiet projects, nothing as big and loud and blindingly bright as Gladiator. And it doesn’t seem like he’s stepping into his ambition reluctantly. This is an actor who understands what it means to be in a movie like this, what a heatscore it is.
Paul Mescal isn’t content to let Glen Powell be the only capital letter male Movie Star of their generation. He’s stepping into the ring, muscles ripped and smiling wide, promising that we will be entertained.
Will you be seeing Gladiator II or Wicked first? Let us know at The Squawk! (App link here)