Wonka has a sweet debut at the weekend box office
Wonka crushed the box office competition like a bunch of greedy children
Aux News Films
Come with me and you’ll be in a world of box office domination: Wonka, the upbeat, Timothée Chalamet-starring reboot of the beloved candy-movie franchise has opened at the top of the box office by a wiiiiide margin, making $39 million in its debut. That’s way more than The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes, which made $5.8 million and has been hanging in second place for a long time (it’s in its fifth week and has made $145 million). Despite getting a wider rollout, Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy And The Heron fell to third with $5 million (and $23 million after two weeks). Two films about mankind’s hubris round out the top five, with Godzilla Minus One making $4.8 million and Trolls Band Together making $4 million.
The bottom half of the top 10 is remarkably similar to last week, with Wish still in sixth place, Napoleon still in seventh (they’ve both been out for four weeks had have both made around $55 million), and The Shift still in 10th. There is a technical newcomer, though, with Poor Things rocketing up the charts after expanding to more screens, even though it’s still playing on fewer than 100. It only made $1.2 million, but it got a better per-screen average than Wonka. That doesn’t really mean anything, and history has shown that it doesn’t mean the movie will continue making more money as it expands to more theaters, but there’s only so much to say about these movies. Should we do more of “Pure Imagination”? How about: “If you want to view Wonka, simply buy a ticket and see it. Any snack you want to, eat it. Want to see Wonka? There’s nothing to it.” See? Bad.
Here’s the full top 10 from Box Office Mojo.
- Wonka
- The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes
- The Boy And The Heron
- Godzilla Minus One
- Trolls Band Together
- Wish
- Napoleon
- Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé
- Poor Things
- The Shift
34 Comments
FYI, putting an advert between numbered list items resets the number sequence, so now you have:Movie #1 Wonka(Ad content)Movie #1 Hunger Games
A small price to pay for that sweet, sweet ad revenue.
Kinja gonna Kinja.
Lol, they’ve been doing that (and have had commenters pointing that out) for years now. They don’t care and/or Kinja Ernie was laid off years ago.
Kinja Ernie wasn’t real! He was a shared hallucination!
One thing that annoys me is when people have a list with two things tied for first and think that makes the next one second when it’s actually third.
Math is hard…
So am I.
WONKA! A lotta Wonka! Straight up! Thank YEW!!!
Ugh we’re going to be inflicted with this annoying theatre kid for years to come, aren’t we
Yes i too am tired of people trained in theatre taking all the acting jobs. Why aren’t there more bricklayers and pastry chefs headlining movies?
Why aren’t there more bricklayers
That middle aged man sort of looks like Sam Worthington.
Or, we could luck out and she grows up to be another Tom Holland.
Can they grow up to be another Tom Hollander instead, please?
Rev: The Next Generation
I still want to do a show called Holland & Hollander , where the stuffy, staid scion of a fame London gunmakers, Tom Hollander, desperately tries to increase flagging sales by hiring hyperactive, quirky, loud Gen Y influencer, Tom Holland to design and market guns for the younger demographics. “You need to appeal to vegans, bruv! Huge market!”“Literally everything we’ve ever made since we were founded in 1821 is designed to kill an animal.”“They’re cool with killin’ ‘em, as long as they don’t eat ‘em. PETA’s killed more animals than that inbred boomer with the Burberry who was just in here on his slave plantation in Kenya or where-the-fuck-ever.”“That was Lord Carlington. My uncle.”“Sure he’s just your uncle? Sure he ain’t you grandpa as well- ah, don’t get butthurt, just banters, bruv. Fucking hell, look at your face! We gotta get this on TikTok.”
I was informed by this website that a movie only making $39 million in its opening weekend meant it’s a flop. God knows what that means for The Boy and the Heron.
The Boy and the Heron only has a $100 million budget, which while outrageous for a Japanese film (it’s the most expensive film ever produced in the country) is pretty modest by American standards.
For comparison, films like The Marvels and Indiana Jones that managed to take the #1 spot at the box office but still are considered bombs had budgets closer to $300 million. And the American box office is just gravy for The Boy and the Heron, the place where it really had to turn a profit was its home country where it was a massive success. Again, for comparison, not only did those aforementioned films struggle in their home country of the US, they also didn’t do too well overseas.
The Boy and the Heron has already made back its budget and it’s still in theaters. The home media release will probably do gangbusters since Studio Ghibli films are perennial sellers and Studio Ghibli produces a lot of its own merchandise like homeware and plushies, so they’ll get the lion’s share of the profits from those.
FFS, this ain’t rocket science. A $39 million opening for a movie that cost well north of $200 million to produce, was expected by industry analysts to open higher, and was a direct sequel to a movie that grossed a billion dollars is absolutely a flop. Wonka purportedly cost half as much as The Marvels to produce, and has already made almost as much money internationally as that movie has made internationally to date.It flopped. Let it go, man.
oh that’s what this is about. what a little freak.
It’s like they’re more mad at blogs and other publications for reporting that it flopped than the fact that it flopped. That’s the same anti-journalism “fake news” bullshit that conservatives are (rightfully) mocked for.
Two films about mankind’s hubris round out the top five, with Godzilla Minus One making $4.8 million and Trolls Band Together making $4 million.
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Can’t speak for the quality of Wonka but I will say that the unauthorized porn parody Wanka was a delight
“Come with me / and you’ll be / in a world of pure ejaculation…”
I’m glad Godzilla Minus One has legs to match its thighs. It pairs pretty well with TBOSAS too.https://mattthecatania.wordpress.com/2023/12/08/godzilla-minus-one-hunger-games-ballad/
I I had kinda forgotten Napolean existed until this article which means it will win a lot of Oscars.
The reviews a pretty poor. It might get in on technical categories but will most likely miss in all the main races.
It was great though. I liked it a lot
Wow, I didn’t realize that Wish was bombing that badly. Disney’s been on an awful run lately.I just saw The Boy and the Heron over the weekend, and while it’s probably middle-of-the-pack for Miyazaki’s standards, he’s still got it. Looked gorgeous on the big screen.
I saw Wonka on Saturday and it was absolutely delightful. I love the original movie and I feel this one delivered on everything. Casting, story, music, set design, direction, and overall tone. The movie felt like drifting into a beautiful dream.
An how can this be?
Can’t remember a year where box office seemed so closely tied to quality and reception. I really hope that’s a trend that continues.