Paul Mescal wants ‘Gladiator 2’ to cause ‘Barbenheimer’ moment with rival movie
Paul Mescal has looked ahead to the release of Gladiator 2, and revealed his ambitions to recreate the Barbenheimer phenomenon along with Wicked.
In 2023, the year’s two most commercially successful movies, Barbie and Oppenheimer, were released on the same day which caused an unlikely cultural craze. Despite being completely different films, they shared a release date, and the two productions played a pivotal role in bringing the masses back to the cinema.
While Barbie was higher grossing than Christopher Nolan’s latest movie, the latter still made more than $900million, which makes it the most successful biopic of all time. Meanwhile, Greta Gerwig’s film became the first female directed picture to gross over $1 billion at the box office.
At a time when cultural tastes have never been more individual and dictated to by unique algorithms, Barbenheimer was a throwback to simpler times when the latest cinematic releases were the only topics occupying people’s minds.
So far, 2024 has been less dominated by box office releases. Notably, huge budget movies such as The Fall Guy, Argylle and Madame Web have all not only failed to live up to commercial expectations, but have also not made a cultural imprint.
However, Mescal is hopeful that Gladiator 2 and the upcoming musical, Wicked, will rejuvenate cinematic interest. The latter stars Ariana Grande alongside Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum and Cynthia Erivo.
Speaking to Entertainment Tonight, the Irish actor said: “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.”
The Normal People star continued: “It would be amazing because 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.”
Mescal also said “the main thing that I’m excited about is the homage that it pays to the first one, but also the kind of new direction that the film takes”. He claimed Gladiator 2 is “well-balanced in that regard in terms of the physical action of the film and the balance of the kind of political aspects of the film as well.”
While Gladiator 2 isn’t scheduled to be released until November 15th, 2024, the first trailer arrived for Ridley Scott’s new movie on July 9th.
The clip sees Mescal’s character Lucius claim that he remembers the day that Maximus fought and killed Joaquin Phoenix’s Emperor Commodus, touching the legendary former Army General’s suit of armour. Macrinus then admits that he will use the young gladiator as his “instrument,” with both characters expressing their desire to see Rome “fall.”
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