Warner Bros.’ “Wonka” is off to a solid start at the box office, grossing $39 million from 4,203 theaters and earning positive word-of-mouth from critics and audiences as it looks to leg out through the holidays and into January.
“Wonka” will need legs as it sports a reported $125 million budget before marketing costs. Prior to the pandemic, musicals like “The Greatest Showman” and “Mary Poppins Returns” were able to pull that off during the holidays, posting openings well south of $40 million yet going on to top $170 million in domestic grosses.
As is now the case for nearly all tentpoles at the box office, Gen Z has been the difference maker for Wonka as 33% of the film’s opening weekend crowd came from the 18-24 demo, showing Timothee Chalamet’s draw among younger audiences.
As the 2023 box office has shown with films like “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” big-budget films don’t have much hope for success without a buy-in from Gen Z. If “Wonka” keeps legging out, Chalamet’s status as a generational draw will only grow, something that Warner Bros. is banking on as he will be starring in “Dune: Part Two” this March.
“Wonka” will face some family competition next weekend from Illumination’s “Migration,” which is getting a no-holds-barred marketing campaign from Universal. But Paul King and Timothee Chalamet’s film is getting strong reception with Rotten Tomatoes scores of 84% critics and 91% audience, an A- on CinemaScore — same as “Mary Poppins Returns” — and PostTrak scores of 4.5/5 from kids and general audiences and 5/5 from parents.
More to come…
