‘Wonka’ Marks the Start of a Critical Holiday Box Office for Warner Bros.
The holiday box office starts warming up this weekend with the release of “Wonka,” which stars Timothée Chalamet as a young version of Roald Dahl’s famous candyman and marks the start of a critical winter for Warner Bros.
While there have been some modest horror-film successes with “The Nun II” and “Evil Dead Rise,” Warner Bros.’ 2023 has been defined by two major events: the studio record-breaking success of “Barbie” and the ignominious end of the DC Extended Universe with three box office bombs. Now, theaters will turn to Warner to drive moviegoer turnout this Christmas with not only “Wonka,” but with “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” and “The Color Purple.”
The latter two films will come out next weekend. But for now, “Wonka” is currently estimated for a $35 million opening from 4,150 theaters, with a possible chance to reach $40 million if walk-up traffic and word-of-mouth is strong.
That’s not the most thrilling start for a family film packing a $125 million budget before marketing. But as Comscore’s Paul Dergarabedian noted, the opening weekend for any December tentpole is only the beginning of the story.
“Studios are looking for their holiday films to leg out for weeks, and just because a film doesn’t have a big December opening doesn’t mean that people won’t discover it during their Christmas break,” Dergarabedian said. “Just look at ‘The Greatest Showman,’ which looked DOA on its opening weekend but then just played all the way through January.”
A run similar to “The Greatest Showman,” which grossed $174.3 million in 2017-18, would be the ideal scenario for “Wonka.” While critics’ consensus seems to be that the film doesn’t hold up to 1971 “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” or to the “Paddington” films made by its director, Paul King, reviews have generally praised the “Wonka” prequel as a fun, heartwarming family adventure with an 84% Rotten Tomatoes score.
“Wonka” is also unlikely to get much competition from other family films currently in theaters like “Trolls Band Together” (produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Universal) and Disney’s “Wish,” as they seem to have mostly run their course at the box office. The bigger competition will come next weekend from Illumination’s “Migration,” which is getting an all-out marketing campaign from Universal in an effort to establish a new animated franchise.
Whether its through its earnest charms, Chalamet’s performance or its musical numbers, “Wonka” will need to build as much word-of-mouth as possible this weekend before more wide release competitors ender the marketplace. CinemaScore and PostTrak returns will say much more about how far this movie can go than what the opening weekend figure will be.
The post ‘Wonka’ Marks the Start of a Critical Holiday Box Office for Warner Bros. appeared first on TheWrap.
