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Will Gladiator 2 be able to fight off the box office woes and bring in a Thanksgiving holiday victory?

That’s what Director Ridley Scott and theaters across the country are hoping for, as 2024 has been a colossal failure for the majority of big budget films. All I have to say is “Joker 2” and one knows exactly how bad the box office was this year. But hey, don’t say I didn’t warn ya!

Now let’s be honest, did we REALLY need a Gladiator sequel? Absolutely not, especially since Russell Crowe was killed in the 2000 Academy Award-winning film. But I have to admit the trailers look pretty awesome and Ridley Scott has quite a track record of making damn good films, including being the mastermind behind the first one. 

STORYLINE CONTINUES TWO DECADES LATER

All the trailers have looked pretty damn awesome (for a sequel) but it’s the fact that Gladiator 2 continues the original storyline two decades later that makes me especially want to see it. Actor Paul Mescal stars in the role as Lucius, the young boy and nephew of Joaquin Phoenix’s emperor Commodus from the first film. Lucius has now returned to th Colosseum to try and bring back the glory of Rome to its people and will do so by trying to fight like a gladiator himself. 

Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal also star in this sequel, while reviews so far have been relatively positive, with no one truly hating the film as if it was Joker 2.

Although no one is saying that the Gladiator sequel comes close to replacing the original, for the most part, film critics are giving it what I like to call a “drunken thumbs up.” It’s not a 10, but it’s above a 5 and wavering in that 7 or 8 mark. 

Considering that earlier this year Apple got absolutely destroyed with their Argyle and Fly Me to the Moon films, that they ended up scrapping the theatrical summer release of George Clooney and Brad Pitt’s Wolves movie, or that Francis Ford Coppola spent decades of his life to release Megalopolis, which was a mega failure, this could be the box office weekend that breathes life into the industry once again thanks to Gladiator and the newly released Wicked.