3 hours Ago By Sara Guymon
ROCHESTER — The holidays are a big time for the box office, and this year appears will be no exception, with two highly anticipated films, "Gladiator II" and "Wicked," coming to movie theaters. Marcus Theaters in Rochester began early showings of each movie on Wednesday, fueling a strong opening weekend. The theater has about 20 daily showings of "Wicked" and 15 of "Gladiator II.
" Derek Pikop, general manager at the theaters, believes the buzz will easily continue through Thanksgiving weekend. ADVERTISEMENT “Movies like this tend to have quite a bit of staying power, especially when they're good,” he said. “We've heard that there's Oscar buzz behind both of these films, so when you have not only a popular franchise, but also when they're good, it adds to that quite a bit of popularity.
” "Wicked" first gained popularity on Broadway in 2003 and the first "Gladiator" movie came out in 2000. In the last two decades, both have accumulated a huge following that have left fans anticipating these films. Katie Devos and Hannah Oakley are two musical fans and knew they had to come to see "Wicked.
" Devos was excited to compare the movie to the play. “I go to a lot of movies,” Devos said. And “I love musicals, I saw (Wicked) as a play and I’m just excited to see it as a movie as opposed to a play.
” Both Devos and Oakley have been planning to see "Wicked" since they saw its previews. Oakley was drawn in by Ariana Grande’s casting as Glinda the Good Witch. She is a big fan and was really excited to see how Grande filled the role.
“For me, the most exciting part of it is seeing people's faces as they're coming in,” Pikop said. “I like having those quick conversations of, ‘What are you excited for? What are you seeing,’ and then hearing their stories of ‘I saw this musical with my mom when I was a kid,’ or’ I remember going to the theater with my dad and seeing 'Gladiator,' and now we're back with my son.’” Pikop likes seeing the variety in moviegoers as well.
And he has seen people come back to rewatch movies despite it still being opening week. ADVERTISEMENT In addition, the two films have completely different target demographics, drawing in a larger audience with a third anticipated movie being added to the lineup this week. "Moana 2" is set to hit theaters on Wednesday and Pikop is expecting to see a lot of families coming into the theater.
"Inside Out 2" did well so he anticipates it will draw a similarly big crowd. The buzz around the new films and their diverse audiences are reminiscent of another big opening weekend in recent memory. “The last double feature was 'Oppenheimer' and 'Barbie,' which was really kind of fun and unique,” Pikop said.
“I really love that there's two different types of crowds coming out. There's a definite, musical crowd for 'Wicked' and then there's that adult male crowd for 'Gladiator,' and then we'll have a kid and family crowd for 'Moana.' So it's really unique to have that diverse of a crowd throughout the entire weekend.
” All three movies come up right in time for Thanksgiving, a time for families to be together. During this time, many families are looking for a warm activity to do together and movies are a great place for that. “There's just nothing better than a communal experience when you can laugh with a crowd, or cry with a crowd, be shocked with a crowd,” Pikop said.
“There's something magical about that. It's the best place to see a movie, not only on a big screen, with a big sound, but you can feel that palpable excitement in the air and interact with other people as you watch too.”.
