'Wicked' and 'Gladiator II' ignite holiday box office

What happened

"Wicked" earned an estimated $114 million in North American movie theaters its opening week, and $164.2 million globally, making it the No. 1 film at the U.S. box office and the highest-earning Broadway-to-screen adaptation debut yet. "Gladiator II" brought in $55.5 million in its first weekend in North America, bringing its global receipts to about $220 million.

Who said what

The combination of the two movies — promoted under the portmanteau "Glicked" — "breathed fresh life into a box office that has struggled lately, leading to one of the busiest moviegoing weekends of the year," The Associated Press said. Neither the synergy nor ticket sales were as strong as with last year's "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" juggernaut, but "Glicked" put Hollywood back where it "desperately hungers to be — at the center of global culture," The New York Times said. Still, "the bounce came at a steep price," as the studios spent tens of millions of dollars in monthslong, "no-expense-spared" marketing campaigns.

The "sold-out theaters" for the two movies largely "validated" the "all-out marketing blitz," The Wall Street Journal said, giving Hollywood and theater owners at least one more "weekend to channel the glory days, before Netflix, TikTok and pandemic quarantines" sapped them of their "cultural dominance."

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What next?

"This weekend isn't 'Barbenheimer,'" but it was "great on its own terms," box office analyst David Gross said to The Washington Post. And since Thanksgiving and Black Friday are "two of the biggest moviegoing days of the year," it's possible "Glicked" has "a longer tail." The "feast of ticket sales" is "set to continue next week" with Disney's release of "Moana 2," the Journal said. The second act of "Wicked" comes out next November.