‘There’s a desire for people to re-experience it’: Will ‘Glicked’ be the Barbenheimer of 2024?
The highly-anticipated Wicked opens in cinemas across the country today, while 326,000 Australians flooded cinemas last weekend to help Gladiator II take $7.6 million at the box office. These may seem like two unrelated facts – but the cinema industry is hoping this blockbuster duo will repeat the success of last year’s unlikely double act, Barbie and Oppenheimer.
“Obviously Barbenheimer was huge for us last year,” Damian Keogh, CEO of Hoyts Group, tells Mumbrella.
He is among those hoping box office lightning will strike twice, and the combination of Wicked and Gladiator II will ignite imaginations much as Barbie and Oppenheimer did in 2023.
“Collectively, they did $135 million at box office, which accounted for probably 15% of the box office last year in Australia,” explains Keogh. “So we knew there was great expectation on both these movie titles.”
There’s certainly an international push for double screenings – the combo has pre-emptively been given the hopeful portmanteau ‘Glicked’ and has been subject to fan poster art such as the example below. But unfortunately, local release dates mean the movies don’t have the neat same-day release as the US, with Gladiator II getting a week’s head start in Australia.
However, both films have seen the cast visit Australia for splashy premieres, which can only increase the hype around a possible pairing.
“I guess the beauty about Barbenheimer was a lot of people went and saw both of them, even though they were kind of different targeted movies,” Keogh notes. “Barbie was probably a little bit more female focused than Oppenheimer, and Oppenheimer was a great movie, won the Oscar, but it was kind of a standalone Chris Nolan-type movie.
“Here, Gladiator is a remake of the original movie in 2000, once again with Ridley Scott as the director. So there are really high expectations around that. Gladiator, the first one, was the biggest movie of the year in Australia, non-inflation adjusted, it made just under $31 million at box office.
“So we’re expecting and certainly hoping it can exceed that. We’re confident it will.”
Barbie
The sequel is certainly on its way, securing the fifth-largest opening of the year, with 82% of the total audience last weekend falling within the much feted 18-54 demographic.
Keogh has already seen the film twice.
“It certainly doesn’t let you down, it’s a spectacular movie,” he confirms. He was also on ground for the Wicked premiere in Sydney earlier this month. “I’m probably not the target market for Wicked,” he notes, “but I thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s an incredibly beautiful looking and well made movie. Highly entertaining.”
Credit: Universal Pictures. (L-R): Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, Ariana Grande as Glinda
Keogh predicts Wicked alone has “probably at least a $40+ [million] number to it” – with Gladiator II expected to dwarf the original in box office taking. The pair might not match Barbenheimer in terms of pure box office numbers – in Australia, Barbie took $86.4 million and Oppenheimer grossed $37.8 million – but they aren’t the only big hitters stepping up to the plate this holiday.
“Collectively, I don’t know that they’ll get to the box office of Barbenheimer,” Keogh reasons, “but then the following week, Moana 2 comes out, where the buzz for that has been unbelievable as well. Collectively, those three movies absolutely have the potential to do the same kind of numbers as Barbenheimer did last year.”
There is also the live action Disney film, Mufasa: The Lion King, launching in mid-December. The 2019 Lion King remake took $64.2 million at the Australian box office, becoming the ninth highest-grossing film of all time in the country. A fraction of that success will be seen as a home run.
“To be honest, it’s incredibly much needed for the cinema industry at the moment,” Keogh says of the strong release slate, “because the legacy of the six-month Hollywood strike last year has put a bit of a dint in the supply chain for this year.”
While this has caused a ‘feast or famine’ aspect to the 2024 cinematic season, Keogh expects the final six weeks of 2024 will take the annual box office “pretty close” to 2023’s $985.1 million.
“When you think of the impact of the strike on the supply, that’s a pretty solid result.”
Of course, another Barbenheimer-type cultural phenomenon would be great – but these things cannot be manufactured. Part of the charm of Barbenheimer was the dissonance between the two films, coupled with the unlikely box office success of both. However, Keogh reasons that if the cinemas want it, the studios want it, and the audiences want it – why not try to repeat the past?
“There’s a desire for people to re-experience it, because it was so fun to have that kind of pop culture moment. I think everyone would really be hoping that it kicks off again; wanting to be a part of it, and wanting to see both the films.
“[Barbie and Oppenheimer] both played long and they dragged each other on.” Ultimately, it’s about building the hype until the momentum takes over.
“I think all four of those movies, but particularly Gladiator and Wicked, will play quite strongly all through January.
“So they’ll have a long run in the cinema.”
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Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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Given the amount of PR around Wicked it must be a real stinker
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