Here's How the Pricey 'Gladiator II' Fared at the Box Office This Weekend

Gladiator II, the late-era sequel to Ridley Scott’s 2000 Best Picture winner, cleaned up at the North American box office this weekend and continued its reign overseas, where it rolled out last weekend.

The film was no slouch despite coming in second behind Wicked (which grossed $115 in North America and another $50 million in international territories). It took $55.5 million in North America; and another $50.5 million internationally, per Variety. After just a week and a half of release, the film has already grossed $221 million. That’s nearly half of the total gross for Scott’s original Gladiator, which topped out at $465.5 million worldwide—about $620 million adjusted for inflation.

Deadline reported that the film cost around $210 million to produce. However, other estimates put the price tag closer to $250 million, with an additional $100 million spent to market the picture. Regardless of the exact sum, it doesn’t seem that Gladiator II will have any trouble returning a substantial profit

Part of the film’s success was due to good old-fashioned counter-programming, While a whopping 72 percent of Wicked audience was female, 60 percent of Gladiator II ticket buyers were males under the age of 35. That indicates the film is playing to fans of the original while also courting a new generation of viewers who were under 10 years old when Gladiator debuted in 2000.

Gladiator II stars Paul Mescal playing the son of Maximus, Crowe’s character from the original. Connie Nielsen reprises her role as Mecal’s mother, while Pedro Pascal and Denzel Washington join the cast.