Wicked casts a spell for $20 million in Thursday previews while Gladiator II steps into the arena with around $6 million

While it hasn’t quite reached the heights of Barbenheimer, two contrasting movies face off this weekend in a similar manner with the musical spectacle Wicked and Ridley Scott’s historical epic sequel Gladiator II. Although it hasn’t been able to carve out the same hype, Gladiator II star Paul Mescal would still hope for it to gain its own identity, “Wickdiator doesn’t really roll off the tongue does it? I think my preference would probably be Glicked if it has a similar effect to what it did for Barbie and Oppenheimer.” Mescal told Entertainment Tonight, “It would be amazing ’cause I think the films couldn’t be more polar opposites and it worked in that context previously. So fingers crossed people come out and see both films on opening weekend.”

The two movies step into the arena and Deadline is reporting that Wicked is looking at an estimate of $20 million for early bird previews, which actually include Amazon promotional previews from Monday and last night’s fan premium format showings. Previously estimated presales came to $30 million, and analysts are also taking into account the added figures of audiences who haven’t pre-booked their tickets. The presales, walk-up purchases, plus early fan and promotional screenings are predicted to see upwards of $130 million to $150 million down the yellow brick road for the weekend.

Meanwhile, while Paramount and Ridley Scott built hype for Gladiator II, saying that early footage blew the minds of the studio executives and Scott professing that this movie is the grandest production of his packed career, the movie suffered some stigma early on when audiences felt the movie was unnecessary without the original’s protagonist. There had also been controversy surrounding the first trailer. And while this is still a sequel to a popular existing property, the supporters aren’t quite the match for Wicked‘s fandom. Gladiator II‘s early previews would total to about $6.5 million to $7 million. However, it would not see any extra promotional screenings and the movie’s R-rating may factor in.

Our Chris Bumbray had a blast with both movies, saying of Gladiator II, “While Gladiator II doesn’t quite gain the instant classic status it aspires to, it’s still a brilliantly made historical epic with a superb ensemble cast and some amazing action.” And he said of Wicked, “While I’ll admit that there were a handful of moments where I felt I was missing some kind of in-joke for fans of the play, overall, I had a pretty good time with Jon M. Chu’s Wicked – Part I.”