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.

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.

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.