'Gladiator II' Steps Inside Paramount+ Arena
Oh give me a Rome, where the lions will comb, and the dearest of family will pray
It’s time for the next film in Paramount Pictures’s slate to Rome on home to Paramount+. With substantially more advanced warning than say, Transformers One, the streamer announced that Gladiator II, Ridley Scott’s sequel to the Best Picture-winning 2000 film Gladiator will arrive on Tuesday, January 21 in the United States and Canada. As usual, its arrival on the service’s other territories will be announced at a later date.
It’s worth noting that of the major theatrical films of its first week, it is the first to have its streaming date known. Having opened on November 22 alongside Wicked with Moana 2 opening the following Wednesday, November 27, the former has an expected Peacock arrival of another 2 month wait until March, while the latter could probably be estimated by what came before, but that would just be estimations. It will have taken 60 days from theatrical release to Paramount+ arrival, putting it on the same side of the scale as A Quiet Place: Day One which took the same amount of time.
Gladiator II stars Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, Denzel Washington, Joseph Quinn, Fred Hechinger, Derek Jacobi and Connie Nielsen. The “epic saga of power, intrigue, and vengeance” continues years after the death of the revered hero Maximus at the hands of his uncle that Lucius (Mescal) had to witness. He is now forced to enter the Colosseum after his home is conquered by the tyrannical Emperors, and must look to his past to find strength and honor to return the glory of Rome to its people. Pascal will see another of his films, DreamWorks Animation’s The Wild Robot, hit Peacock at the end of next week, January 24.
Despite opening against such stiff competition that has grossed nearly $700 million and nearly a billion dollars respectively, Gladiator II has itself grossed $455 million, on a $171.4 million domestic and $284.4 million international split. The film has earned nominations for two Golden Globes, four Critics’ Choice Awards (delayed again to sometime in February), three BAFTA Film Awards and a SAG Award. The film’s mere existence helped boost the original’s profile, as in the 28 days following the sequel’s release, the original saw a 96% increase in viewership on Paramount+.
With Scott returning to direct, David Scarpa wrote the script from his story conceived with Peter Craig, which was based on characters created through the first film’s story and script by David Franzoni. Douglas Wick, Scott, Lucy Fisher, Michael Pruss and Franzoni produced, with Walter Parkes, Laurie MacDonald, Raymond Kirk and Aidan Elliott as executive producers.
Source: Deadline