The Big Picture
- Warner Bros.’ Wonka, led by Timothée Chalamet, achieves a weekend revenue of $28.9 million globally, only a 27% decrease from the previous weekend.
- The December release has proven lucrative with its family-friendly story, colorful characters, and charming musical numbers, captivating audiences and ensuring profitability for Warner Bros.
- Despite some declines in select countries, Wonka‘s international cumulative earnings reached an impressive $301.2 million, contributing to a global total of $465.8 million.
Warner Bros.’ Wonka has continued to enchant audiences in a world of pure imagination as the Timothée Chalamet-led picture crossed a huge international milestone at the worldwide box office this weekend. The film achieved a weekend revenue of approximately $28.9 million across 11,763 screens in 77 overseas markets, marking a notable decrease of just 27% compared to the previous weekend.
With a production budget of $120 million and an estimated marketing expenditure exceeding $100 million, Wonka needed to exceed $240 million in box office revenue to ensure profitability for Warner Bros. Initially slated for a March 2023 release, the film’s rescheduling to December has proven extremely lucrative for the studio, with its family-friendly story, charming musical numbers and colorful characters proving a massive hit with audiences, particularly those who spent the holiday season looking for something to do together. Paul King, director of the Paddington films, has crafted a prequel that is better than it has any right to be, and with an outstanding supporting cast including the likes of Olivia Colman, Sally Hawkins, Hugh Grant, and Keegan Michael-Key, looks set to continue to bring in profits for Warner Bros. Discovery, particularly given the film’s relatively modest budget.
The film’s performance remained robust in various countries, with Holland seeing a 6% increase, while Brazil, France, Spain, Italy, Mexico, Australia, Germany, and Japan experienced declines ranging from 16% to 33%. The film’s international cumulative earnings have now reached an impressive $301.2 million, contributing to a global total of about $465.8 million. Korea is set to be the final market for the film’s release, with its opening scheduled for January 31st. It also added $1 million via IMAX screenings, bringing the film’s IMAX cume to $16.1 million.
Is ‘Wonka’ Worth Seeing?
The movie currently sits at a “fresh” 82% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, with Collider’s Ross Bonaime writing that the film’s “spirit and optimism, along with Chalamet’s fantastic performance, make up for its weaknesses.” He went on to say:
“King and Farnaby play up this Wonka as a young dreamer who won’t let the world get him down and always sees the chocolate cup as half full. Helping bring that to life is an endearing performance by Chalamet, who gets to be as over-the-top and theatrical as he wants to be. Again, this is forging its own path, as opposed to checking down the list of things we know about Wonka, and Chalamet is smart to not attempt to mimic Wilder. Chalamet makes this character his own and has a ball with the quick-talking magician who is still full of optimism.”
Wonka is currently playing in theaters.
Wonka
Based on the extraordinary character at the center of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, ‘Wonka’ tells the wondrous story of how the world’s greatest inventor, magician and chocolate-maker became the beloved Willy Wonka we know today.
- Release Date
- December 15, 2023
- Director
- Paul King
- Rating
- PG
- Runtime
- 116 minutes
- Main Genre
- Fantasy
