24 years after the release of the first gladiator film, starring Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix, Gladiator 2 premiered in on November 13th. The sequel hit cinemas around the world in the following days with the star of Gladiator passing the reigns to lead actor Paul Mescal with his statement “I’m six feet under. So we’ll see what that is like.”
Gladiator 2 has surpassed its prequel in the box office making upwards of £68 million in its first week in the UK, compared to Gladiators £27.5 million, and this has only grown after the films release in the US on November 22nd making just over £43 million in its first weekend. Gladiator 2 is estimated to have made close to £150 million during debut in cinemas worldwide.
Fans of the movie series are watching rotten tomatoes closely to see if the new sequel will take the higher score, currently the original gladiator takes the lead with a score of 80%, although Gladiator 2 is not far behind with a score of 74%.
While Gladiator 2 has been one of the most anticipated films to release this year, alongside the new adaptation of Broadway musical Wicked, the reviews from fans have been surprisingly varied with some fans leaving the cinema disappointed by “cheesy writing” and an “incoherent plot” while others rave about the “talented cast” and “awesome battle sequences” with one pleased fan commenting: “Absolutely fantastic movie! It had the feel and nostalgia of the original, but it was a wonderful finale to the story.”
Although the movie doesn’t end on a cliffhanger fans have speculated the possibility of a Gladiator 3. This has been confirmed by the director Ridley Scott in an interview he gave at the US premiere in Los Angeles after he stated “Given the performance in the rest of the world that we’ve seen yesterday, there’s certainly going to be a ‘Gladiator III” lead actor Paul Mescal has also commented that he is “massively down” to film the third instalment of the saga leaving fans exited at the prospect of a running series of gladiator movies but apprehensive that a series, if badly executed, could completely eclipse the original gladiator.