On July 21, 2023, Barbie and Oppenheimer were released in theaters. Both movies killed it at the box office. Barbie, especially, brought a lot of women out to theaters for the first time in ages. Seeing both movies, sometimes as a double feature, became a whole event. There were memes and jokes and the cast members played it up as well. Both movies got a lot of free promotion, and it was a huge cultural moment. 2023 was the summer of Barbenheimer, and it was really fun.
Naturally, Hollywood is trying to recreate the magic and make another Barbenheimer moment happen. Only this time, they’re trying to push two movies that are coming out just before Thanksgiving: Gladiator II and Wicked Part 1. During an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Gladiator II star Paul Mescal dubbed it “Glicked.” Gladiator II, the sequel to 2000’s Oscar winning film starring Russell Crowe and Joquain Phoenix, is in the Opp spot while Wicked, which depicts the first act of the hit Broadway musical, is supposed to be the Barbie fill-in. So, will they successfully be able to make a holiday season of Glicked happen?
This year, two disparate, big-budget films will share a release date: One, an R-rated historical epic stacked with a starry cast of Oscar hopefuls. The other, a musical based on a beloved property with plenty of pink and a Billboard-friendly soundtrack. Sound familiar?
With “Gladiator II” and the first part of “Wicked” sharing a release date, days before Thanksgiving, movie theaters are nearing their truest chance at another “Barbenheimer,” a viral phenomenon that in 2023 drove audiences to the movie theater by the millions, leaving a massive mark in pop culture and at the box office.
But what will we call it? “Gladiator II” star Paul Mescal thinks “Glicked” (pronounced glick-id) is the portmanteau that suits the prospective double feature best.
“’Wickiator’ doesn’t really roll off the tongue, does it?” he said in a new interview with Entertainment Tonight. “I think the films couldn’t be more polar opposite and kind of worked in that context previously, so fingers crossed people come out and see both films on opening weekend.”
But maybe we moviegoers (and Mescal) are getting ahead of ourselves. Tom Nunan, a lecturer at UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and TV and the founder of the production company Bull’s Eye Entertainment, isn’t fully sold on “Barbenheimer” 2.0.
Both “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” were major films with astronomical hype from respected auteurs, but even the studios couldn’t have predicted that audiences would make both films appointment viewing over the same weekend, he said. (“Barbie” was produced by Warner Bros., which shares parent company Warner Bros. Discovery with CNN.)
“It’s good when studios release big titles simultaneously,” Nunan told CNN. “I do think that they feed off of each other –– that level of excitement. I think all of those things work in both of these films’ favor. I just don’t think it’s going to be the lightning in a bottle that ‘Barbenheimer’ was.”
Yeah, no. I don’t mean to be a Negative Nancy here but I just do not see Glicked blowing up. I’m excited to see Gladiator II and am sure that Wicked will do just fine at the box office, but Glicked feels like the dollar store version of Barbenheimer. Barbenheimer was lightning in a bottle that came about organically at just the right time. It was really fun to dress up and get in on this big cultural moment. Women showed up for Barbie because the movie showed up for us. It spoke towards our experiences. It was funny, serious, silly and just had a lot of heart. Oppenheimer benefitted from the hype and enthusiasm that Barbie brought to the table. Plus, the social media memes and jokes did a lot towards making people want in on the dual-feature action.
I don’t see that happening with either of these newer movies. Any attempt to make Glicked go viral will feel forced. Sometimes, a cast can make all of the difference, too. Gladiator II got a lot of hype after the trailer with Denzel Washington and two of the Internet’s boyfriends, Pedro Pascal and Paul Mescal, came out. Wicked’s trailer was met with skepticism despite it showing off the vocal prowess and badassery of Cynthia Erivo. To be blunt, I think Ariana Grande’s casting as well as her shenanigans with SpongeBob Side Piece put a damper on excitement for it. Any attempt at making it go viral will inevitably make fun of their messiness. That’s not going to make people want to commit to sitting through two lengthy musicals. So yeah, they can try but I think fetch is going to happen before Glicked does.
Photos credit: sb / Avalon, James Warren / Bang Showbiz / Avalon, Jeffrey Mayer / Avalon and via YouTube and Instagram/Wicked and Gladiator II
A lot of why Barbenheimer worked was because they were two culturally meaningful and opposing parts of our history. Barbie looked. bright and fun and made fun of itself with some amazing scenes (2001) while covering serious issues for women. Oppenheimer contrasted with this in terms of colour, themes and seriousness and with the tragedies and advancements we know his work brought.
Glad2 and Wicked don’t have that cultural immediacy or contrast.
This. Both took place in the last 100 years, had massive promo due to the release against each other (sorry Nolan, Barbie carried you on this one), and released in the peak of summer, during the early stages of a strike when no other films were going to get the same promo.
Musicals tend to be very hit or miss with audiences. I love wicked but cannot stand AG and that really has tainted the whole film for me. Plus splitting it in two doesn’t help. I’m meh on Gladiator. It has an amazing cast, yes, but that’s kinda the only reason I would watch it TBH.
It also fails to understand that one of the primary reasons people were so excited about both of those movies was that they were creatively original. Gladiator II and Wicked are a sequel and an adaptation of a musical that most people already saw if they were interested in it. (I know Oppenheimer was adapted from a book, but let’s be honest, a huge number of people who saw the movie never read that TOME.) These are just two more Hollywood rehashes.
No. I’m excited for Gladiator but have no interest in Wicked. I feel bad for her costars because it looks promising from the trailers, but Ariana Grande is just biting-on-tinfoil unwatchable for me at this point. Her talent is dwarfed by her personality disorder.
I’m not excited for any of the two, saving money on both!
Biting-on tin foil unwatchable is a hilarious comment on AG and the Wicked movie they put her in!
Yeah, Wicked does…not look good. Errivo seems to be the best thing in it, but it’s giving off Oz The Great And Powerful vibes overall.
Part of the appeal with Barbenheimer was that Barbie was a fun, frothy movie with lots of pink and lots of humor – yes it had a serious message and I cried at parts, lol, but it was overall a fun movie. And Oppenheimer was about a very complicated historical figure and a very dark part of America’s history – the creation of the atomic bomb. So Barbie worked really well as a palate cleanser for Oppenheimer. and yes I saw both in theaters and I think that may have been the last time I was at the theater? I can’t remember lol.
Here, while Gladiator obviously looks serious, its still fictional, it still has a summer blockbuster feel to it despite a November release. It may be a tragic movie but its not Oppenheimer, you know? And I don’t think of Wicked as especially light and frothy, despite all the pink. So I’m not sure its quite a palate cleanser like Barbie was.
All that said – I do think both movies will do well at the box office, especially over the long weekend.
Barbenheimer was a natural thing created by fans. This feels forced by studio executives.
I would like to see both, but if Wicked is really split into 2 films, I’m waiting and watching it all at once. I don’t want to pay $20 to go see half a movie.
it’s definitely being split into 2 which is so stupid.
Looks like a movie weekend is in my future this autumn. Denzel looks amazing in his role well worth the price of admission, and I have been waiting to see Wicked on screen so I can compare it with Broadway and the book, it is my favorite soundtrack to sing my lungs out to alone at home.. can you tell I’m excited 😜
Barbie appealed to a huge cross section of audiences, one of the most significant being couples. It was a great date movie, something that Wicked most certainly is not. And since Hollywood doesn’t know how to market movie musicals as musicals, Wicked will be a tough sell for people unfamiliar with the original stage version.
The whole family is looking forward to watching GII, mostly because of Denzel seemingly being his usual bad-ass self.
We couldn’t care less about Wicked ½ though, despite liking the musical, because of AG’s more than annoying personality *and* it being only the first half of something that shouldn’t have been split in two.
AG and SpongeBob scandal is too new for me to put money on their pocket. It is a shame that this role was Ariana’s dream job and she tarnished it with her side piece. For Gladiator, I am gonna wait for the audience feedback if it is worth to see in movie theater.
I love when something organic happens and is celebrated. But then the Hollywood machine immediately tries to replicate it over and over.
If it happens it happens, but trying to make it happen is gross.
Omg both movies look terrible – I couldn’t even get half way through the gladiator trailer. Read the wicket novel. It was a horrible story and I can’t bear to think of watching a two hour film on it.
Ugh. There’s my movie bitching for the day!