WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland's conservative Law and Justice party, which is trying to regain its momentum after losing power last year, on Sunday chose historian Karol Nawrocki as its candidate for president ahead of next year's election.
The decision caps a weekend during which the country's two largest parties announced their candidates for en election that will decide the successor to incumbent President Andrzej Duda, whose second and final term ends in August 2025.
Nawrocki, 41, has since 2021 led the Institute of National Remembrance, a state body that houses archives and researches the crimes of World War II and the communist era. He previously served as the director of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdansk, the city where he was born.
The party bypassed seasoned politicians including former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki to tap the lesser-known Nawrocki to run for the highest office, similar to what it did in choosing Duda a decade earlier.
“The party decided to field a non-partisan, independent candidate, a candidate that many of our prominent activists, including the top ones, did not know closely," party leader Jarosław Kaczyński told those gathered at a party convention in the southern city of Krakow.
Had Kaczyński tapped Morawiecki or another high-level party member who held a government role from 2015-23, it could have made the corruption scandals of that period a key focus of the campaign.
Kaczyński stated in an interview months ago that the party’s presidential candidate should be “young, tall, impressive, handsome, have a family, know English very well, and preferably two languages, and be internationally savvy.”
Nawrocki, giving an acceptance speech to an audience that included his wife and three children, laid out a world view that is fully in line with the party's: patriotic, pro-Christian, pro-NATO and favorable to President-elect Donald Trump.
The announcement in Krakow came a day after the main governing party, Civic Coalition of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, announced that it was fielding progressive Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski as its candidate.
Even though other parties will have candidates, the race is expected to be mostly dominated by Nawrocki and Trzaskowski.
Law and Justice, in power for eight years from 2015 to 2023, is expected to face headwinds at the polls due to a loss of state funding after the state electoral authority determined earlier this year that the party violated campaign funding rules in the 2023 parliamentary vote.
The constitutional calendar dictates that the first round of the presidential election be held on a Sunday in May 2025, though the date has not been set yet. If no candidate receives at least 50% of the vote in the first round, a runoff between the top two vote-getters will be held two weeks later.
Other candidates who have announced plans to run include the parliament speaker, Szymon Hołownia, leader of the Poland 2050 party, while the far-right Confederation party has said that its candidate will be Sławomir Mentzen.
Karol Nawrocki, the head of Poland's state historical institute, speaks to a convention of Poland's conservative Law and Justice party after being tapped to be its candidate for president in an election next year, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024, in Krakow, Poland. (AP Photo/Beata Zawrzel)
NEW YORK (AP) — With a combined $270 million in worldwide ticket sales, “Wicked” and “Gladiator II” breathed fresh life into a box office that has struggled lately, leading to one of the busiest moviegoing weekends of the year.
Jon M. Chu’s lavish big-budget musical “Wicked,” starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, debuted with $114 million domestically and $164.2 million globally for Universal Pictures, according to studio estimates Sunday. That made it the third-biggest opening weekend of the year, behind only “Deadpool & Wolverine” and “Inside Out 2.” It’s also a record for a Broadway musical adaptation.
Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator II,” a sequel to his 2000 best picture-winning original, launched with $55.5 million in ticket sales. With a price tag of around $250 million to produce it, “Gladiator II” was a big bet by Paramount Pictures to return to the Coliseum with a largely new cast, led by Denzel Washington and Paul Mescal. While it opened with a touch less than the $60 million predicted in domestic ticket sales, “Gladiator II” has performed well overseas. It added $50.5 million internationally.
Going into the weekend, box office was down about 11% from last year and some 25% from pre-pandemic times. That meant this week's two headline films led a much-needed resurgence for theaters. With “Moana 2” releasing Wednesday, Hollywood might be looking at historic sales over the Thanksgiving holiday.
“This weekend’s two strong openers are invigorating a box office that fell apart after a good summer,” said David A. Gross, a film consultant who publishes a newsletter for Franchise Entertainment.
The collision of the two movies led to some echoes of the “Barbenheimer” effect of last year, when “Barbie" and “Oppenheimer” launched simultaneously. The nickname this time, “Glicked,” wasn’t quite as catchy and the cultural imprint was also notably less. Few people sought out a double feature this time. The domestic grosses in 2023 – $162 million for “Barbie” and $82 million for “Oppenheimer” – were also higher.
But the counter-programming effect was still potent for “Wicked” and “Gladiator II,” which likewise split broadly along gender lines. And it was again the female-leaning release – “Wicked,” like “Barbie” before it – that easily won the weekend. About 72% of ticket buyers for “Wicked” were female, while 61% of those seeing “Gladiator II” were male.
And while “Barbenheimer” benefitted enormously from meme-spread word-of-mouth, both “Wicked” and “Gladiator II” leaned on all-out marketing blitzes.
Both movies pulled out all the stops in global advertising campaigns that spanned everything from “Wicked” Mattel dolls (some of which led to an awkward recall) to an Airbnb cross-promotion with the actual Colosseum in Rome. For “Gladiator II,” Paramount even took the unusual step of simultaneously running a one-minute trailer on more than 4,000 TV networks, radio station and digital platforms.
Though “Wicked” will face some direct competition from “Moana 2,” it would seem to be better set up for a long and lucrative run in theaters. Even at 2 hours and 40 minutes, the film has had mostly stellar reviews. Audiences gave it an “A” on CinemaScore. The reception for “Wicked” has been strong enough that Oscar prognosticators expect it to be a contender for best picture at the Academy Awards, among other categories.
Producers, perhaps sensing a hit, also took the step of splitting “Wicked” in two. Part two, already filmed, is due out next November. Each “Wicked” installation cost around $150 million to make.
“Gladiator II” has also enjoyed good reviews, particularly for Washington's charismatic performance. Audience scores, though, were weaker, with ticket buyers giving it a “B” on CinemaScore. “Gladiator II” will make up for some of that, however, with robust international sales. It launched in many overseas markets a week ago, earning $87 million before landing in North America.
This image released by Paramount Pictures shows Paul Mescal, left, and Pedro Pascal in a scene from "Gladiator II." (Aidan Monaghan/Paramount Pictures via AP)
Denzel Washington, from left, director Ridley Scott, left, and Paul Mescal pose for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film 'Gladiator II' on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in London. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)
FILE - Cynthia Erivo, right, and Ariana Grande pose for the photographers prior to the the premiere of "Wicked" at Auditorio Nacional in Mexico City, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. In “Wicked,” Elphaba and Glinda travel from Shiz University to the Emerald City on a glistening green train to meet the wizard. In real life, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande have traveled much farther and wider and longer and on airplanes to promote their hotly anticipated film. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano, File)
Cynthia Erivo, left, and Ariana Grande arrive at the premiere of "Wicked" on Saturday, Nov. 9, 2024, at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. In “Wicked,” Elphaba and Glinda travel from Shiz University to the Emerald City on a glistening green train to meet the wizard. In real life, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande have traveled much farther and wider and longer and on airplanes to promote their hotly anticipated film. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
Jeff Goldblum, from left, Jonathan Bailey, Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande and Michelle Yeoh pose for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film 'Wicked' on Monday, Nov. 18, 2024, in London. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)
This combination of images shows promotional art for "Gladiator II," left, and "Wicked." (Paramount/Universal Pictures via AP)
This image released by Paramount Pictures shows Paul Mescal in a scene from "Gladiator II." (Aidan Monaghan/Paramount Pictures via AP)
This image released by Universal Pictures shows Cynthia Erivo, left, and Ariana Grande in a scene from the film "Wicked." (Universal Pictures via AP)
