InkBlog

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.”

[From CNN]

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

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