Whether “ Wicked ” and “ Gladiator II ” inspires an unorthodox double feature à la last summer’s simultaneous blockbusters “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” remains a question. Either way, there’s a box office battle brewing between Universal’s pink-and-green musical and Paramount’s bloody sword-and-sandal epic, both of which open on Friday.

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The box office languished this fall after a record-breaking summer, though the trifecta of “Wicked,” “Gladiator II” and “Moana 2” are expected to be big hits this month.

Nevertheless, the musical retelling of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” by L. Frank Baum captured the hearts of Broadway audiences and has quickly gained a cult following. Since its debut, “Wicked” has become the fourth longest-running and second highest-grossing musical on Broadway, raking in $1.6 billion across more than 8,000 performances.

Expensive comic book movies, starry comedies, Christmas fare, Westerns and auteur-driven sci-fi epics all spectacularly imploded. Major titles played to a couple of dudes who snuck in at 11 a.m.

Paramount’s “Gladiator II” dominated the U.K. and Ireland box office with a £9.1 million ($11.5 million) opening weekend, according to numbers from Comscore. Studiocanal’s “Paddington In Peru” maintained momentum in its sophomore session,