Gladiator II’s competition in the box office Colosseum has been fierce, with the current crop of theatrical entrants some of the year’s biggest. From Wicked to Moana 2, Gladiator II had a tougher task to stand out despite being itself a major addition to the year’s cinematic lineup. Nevertheless, the film has still stormed its way to many a box office milestone, even if it has performed the worst of the three thus far. With a total worldwide haul of $327 million, Gladiator II has now worked its way onto its most impressive list yet, namely the top 20 movies at the 2024 global box office.

To take its place on the list, Gladiator II surpassed the beloved The Wild Robot by $6 million so far, with that figure set to rise as another weekend looms. With ticket sales for Gladiator II still expected to impress this coming weekend, there’s no reason why the sequel couldn’t continue to rise through the ranks, with the film likely to overtake Article 20, It Ends With Us, and Alien: Romulus in the coming days and finish Sunday in 17th position.

Paul Mescal Struggles to Live Up to Russell Crowe’s Oscar-Winning Heights

One of the most celebrated aspects of the first Gladiator film was the pitch-perfect performance by Russell Crowe as the revenge-hungry Maximus Decimus Meridius. From his powerful delivery of the iconic “Are you not entertained?” monologue to the more nuanced, emotional beats, Crowe dominates the screen as a true gladiator should. Alas, the choice to make the protagonist of the sequel the son of Maximus and to have him walk in his father’s footsteps was always going to draw comparisons. Sadly, Paul Mescal simply cannot live up to said comparisons, with his performance, albeit engaging, failing to capture the same gravitas as Crowe’s. This is something mentioned in Ross Bonaime’s review of the movie for Collider, saying:

“By putting Lucius on a similar path to Maximus in the first film, it’s also hard not to compare Mescal’s performance to

Crowe’s star-making role

. Mescal’s character simply
doesn’t have the opportunity to build to the same emotional levels as Maximus did
. We don’t feel the heartbreak once his wife dies the same way we did in the original, nor do we feel the overwhelming rage that motivates both these characters. Maximus felt like a bomb biding his time until he could explode, whereas Lucius simply doesn’t have quite the same amount of layers to make him equally mesmerizing of a character. That isn’t a knock on Mescal’s performance, but rather, the film’s inability to build Lucius in a way that allows him to stand on his own two feet without what we already know from the original.”

Gladiator II has officially entered the top 20 movies at the 2024 global box office. You can catch the sequel in theaters now.

Release Date November 22, 2024 Cast Paul Mescal , Pedro Pascal , Denzel Washington , Connie Nielsen , Joseph Quinn , Fred Hechinger , Derek Jacobi , May Calamawy , Peter Mensah , Matt Lucas , Alexander Karim , Tim McInnerny , Lee Charles , Chidi Ajufo , Alfie Tempest , Riana Duce , Chi Lewis Parry , Paul Candelent , Hadrian Howard , Alexander Simkin , Mikhail Basmadjian , Matthew Charlery-Smith , Maxime Durand , Lior Raz Runtime 148 minutes Expand

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