Wicked and Gladiator 2's box office preview numbers show a clear leader and clarify its comparison with Barbenheimer. Last summer, the simultaneous release of Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer and ...

NEW YORK — With a combined $270 million in worldwide ticket sales, “Wicked” and “Gladiator II” breathed fresh life into a box office that has struggled lately, leading to one of the ...

The box office languished this fall after a record-breaking summer, though the trifecta of “Wicked,” “Gladiator II” and “Moana 2” are expected to be big hits this month.

In a box office battle of the sexes, “Wicked” attracted mostly women and arrived to $114 million in North America, while “Gladiator II” was more popular with men and collected $56 million.

Universal Pictures’ “Wicked” needed no lessons in how to be popular at the domestic box office this weekend, opening at No. 1 to the tune of $114 million, according to studio estimates.

Studio projections are lower, putting “Gladiator II” around $60 million and “Wicked” around $100 million. “‘Wicked’ is the one that’s really moving up.

Two big-budget films are set to battle at the box office: Wicked offers a gravity-defying origin story for the Wicked Witch of the West, while Gladiator II revisits the violence of ancient Rome.

'Wicked' is set to capture females in its opening weekend with $80M while 'Gladiator II' is eyeing $65M with men and older women in the pre-Thanksgiving frame.

'Wicked' is opening to $117M at the weekend box office, the best ever for a Broadway feature adaptation while 'Gladiator 2' is seeing $60M.

According to reports, “Gladiator II” had a $250 million price tag; “Wicked” reportedly cost $150 million to produce (and that does not include the cost of the second film, due next year).

With the historical epic "Gladiator II" and pink-tinged musical "Wicked" debuting on the same weekend later this year, there's real potential for another "Barbenheimer" double-feature phenomenon.