Gladiators of Rome (Italian: Gladiatori di Roma) is a 2012 Italian computer-animated comedy film produced by Rainbow, a studio co-owned by Iginio Straffi and Viacom at the time. Viacom's Paramount Pictures released the film in North America while Medusa Film handled distribution in Italy. The film was directed by Straffi, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Michael J. Wilson. Gladiators of Rome had its world premiere in Italy on 18 October 2012.While conceiving the idea for the film, Iginio Straffi chose to write about ancient Rome so that he could set the story in Italy while still appealing to an international audience. Gladiators of Rome is a spoof of serious films about gladiators, which Straffi said "easily lend themselves to parody." Paramount Pictures (the film unit of Viacom, which co-owns Rainbow) worked with the Italian team on both the casting and story for the film; Paramount asked for certain scenes to be changed for American audiences. The project was in development for over five years and became one of the most expensive Italian films ever made. Its production budget alone was estimated to be around $45–55 million in U.S. dollars, with promotion and advertising costs bringing its total to almost $80 million (70 million euros).The film was a box-office bomb, grossing just 818,913 euros in its opening weekend. Triboo Media's Federico Boni wrote that "there could not have been a worse opening for the 'blockbuster.'" According to Box Office Mojo, the film ended its theatrical release with about $10 million worldwide. In 2016, Straffi presumed that the poor performance of the film was a result of the Rainbow studio's lack of experience with cinema.