‘Wonka’ Tops Thursday Box Office With $8 Million, ‘Aquaman 2’ Struggling During Holiday Season
Timothée Chalamet retained his holiday season crown as “Wonka” topped the box office on Thursday. The family film, which looks at chocolatier Willy Wonka and his quest to open the world’s most fantastical candy company, earned $8 million, pushing its domestic gross to $110.6 million. “Wonka” carries an $125 million budget and has been a success overseas, where it has earned more than $180 million.
In second place, Universal and Illumination’s “Migration” earned $6.5 million to bring its domestic total to $37.1 million. The film follows a family of mallards whose trip south for the winter takes some unexpected detours. “Migration” has been a slow starter at the box office, but it has picked up some momentum this week with kids out of school and parents looking for diversions. Its $72 million budget is relatively economical for an animated film, but the film has ground to make up if it’s going to turn a profit.
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Warner Bros., the studio behind “Wonka,” has had a very busy end to its year, releasing three major films. The other two, “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” and a musical version of “The Color Purple,” earned $5.8 million and $3.3 million, respectively. That was good enough for a third place finish for “Aquaman 2,” pushing its domestic gross to a disappointing $58.3 million. The film is the final entry in DC’s ill-considered and oft-maligned cinematic universe. The company, under new leaders James Gunn and Peter Safran, is rebooting its comic book movies.
“The Color Purple,” which captured fourth place and recently was a late-breaking addition to Barack Obama’s favorite films of the year list, is viewed as a major awards season player. It was produced by Oprah Winfrey, Quincy Jones, Scott Sanders and Steven Spielberg and stars Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks and Fantasia Barrino. Winfrey earned an Oscar nomination for her role in the 1986 adaptation, which Spielberg directed. “The Color Purple’s” domestic total stands at $32.3 million.
Fifth place went to Sony’s “Anyone but You,” a rom-com starring Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell. It grossed $2.8 million, pushing its domestic haul to a lackluster $16 million. Despite the meager commercial returns, “Anyone but You” wasn’t expensive to make, carrying a budget of $25 million.
George Clooney’s “The Boys in the Boat,” a sports drama about U.S. rowers competing in the 1936 Summer Olympic games in Berlin, earned $2.4 million. The Amazon and MGM Studios release has earned $13.6 million domestically.
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