Ridley Scott’s $462M Historical Epic Gladiator II Quietly Becomes a Global Streaming Hit

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The award-winning director is well-known for making grand historical films. Following a string of successful movies, they returned to the genre in 2024 with Gladiator II.

The new movie, Gladiator II, is set sixteen years after the original film. With Russell Crowe’s character, Maximus, having died in the first movie, the sequel features a new main character. While Gladiator II received generally positive reviews, it didn’t perform as well as expected in theaters. Surprisingly, over a year after its release, the film has recently reappeared on global streaming charts, according to FlixPatrol.

Despite being released some time ago, Gladiator II continues to perform well on streaming platforms, currently ranking ninth worldwide, just above another 2024 Oscar winner. Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning remains the most popular film overall. While the movie didn’t do as well in the U.S., it was a hit in Italy and also found success in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, where it reached number four. It also landed at number seven in the UK and Ireland.

In the upcoming Gladiator II, Paul Mescal plays Lucius, who is now forced to fight in the Colosseum. Years after seeing his uncle, Maximus, killed, Lucius must face the emperors of Rome who have taken over his homeland. Driven by anger and with the fate of the empire hanging in the balance, he seeks inspiration from the past to restore Rome’s former greatness and fight for its people.

Derek Jacobi and Connie Nielsen returned as their characters, Senator Gracchus and Lucilla, joined by new cast members Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn, Fred Hechinger, and Denzel Washington.

Despite generally positive reviews – critics gave it a 70% rating and audiences an 81% – Gladiator II didn’t perform well at the box office. While it earned $460.3 million, according to The Numbers, this wasn’t enough considering its $250 million production budget, resulting in a disappointing financial outcome.

Despite generally positive reviews, Russell Crowe, the star of the 2000 film, pointed out that it was missing a strong sense of right and wrong.

He believes the recent sequel – which he didn’t name – missed what made the original so good. According to Crowe, it wasn’t about spectacle or action, but the strong moral message at its heart.

Gladiator Could Continue

Despite the second Gladiator movie not performing well in theaters, director Ridley Scott has expressed interest in making another one. He actually started planning Gladiator III before the second film even came out, and recently confirmed that work on a third installment is already underway.

I was really interested to hear the lead actor talk about his experiences lately. He admitted the recent production was incredibly demanding and he’s actually craving projects that are a bit more intimate and creatively challenging. He said making that big film was a good experience, but The History of Sound really felt like where he belonged, a comfortable space for him to work. He’s much more excited about doing films on that scale going forward, rather than something massive like Gladiator II.

You know, I’m really looking forward to a bit of peace and quiet after I finish promoting my latest film, Hamnet. Honestly, I’m hoping to disappear for a while – maybe until 2028! I think everyone, including myself, could use a break from seeing my face. As for Gladiator III, Paramount hasn’t said anything official about it yet, so we’ll have to wait and see.

Gladiator II is streaming on Paramount+.

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2026-01-08 00:11