‘Wonka’ Leads Event-less Post-Christmas Wednesday, But Overall Daily Box Office +19% From 2022

the 2004 Tina Fey movie, earned $28 million in its first three days in theaters according to studio estimates Sunday. Not accounting for inflation, that’s more than the $24.4 million the first movie made in its opening weekend.The “Mean Girls” competition over the Martin Luther King Jr.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Wonka” has crossed a sweet box office milestone. The fantasy musical, starring Timothée Chalamet as the eccentric chocolatier, surpassed $500 million in global ticket sales. After five weeks on the big screen, “Wonka” has generated $176.2 million domestically and $329.1 million internationally, bringing its global tally to $505.3 million.

according to IMDB’s Box Office Mojo.The Washington Post said the action thriller, starring Jason Statham, has “more zzzzz than bzzzz.”The rom-com “Anyone But You,” which was in third place last week, moved up a notch to second, with $2.1 million in sales.The film stars Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell, who The Hollywood Reporter said “can’t fake the fizz” in the flick, which is based on William Shakespeare’s play “Much Ado About Nothing.”Things soured for “Wonka,” which dropped to third, with earnings of $1.8 million. Its star, Timothée Chalamet, was nominated at Jan.

Timothée Chalamet and “Wonka” topped the box office charts for the third time in its four weekends in theaters.Warner Bros.’ family-oriented musical added $14.4 million in ticket sales according to studio estimates Sunday, bringing its total domestic grosses to $164.7 million.“’Wonka’ is following in the tradition of a film like ‘The Greatest Showman,’” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. That Hugh Jackman musical opened under $9 million in Dec.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Night Swim,” a supernatural thriller produced by horror mavens Jason Blum and James Wan, waded to second place in its debut. The film, marking the first nationwide release of the year, collected a moderate $12 million from 3,200 North American theaters. Those ticket sales weren’t enough to topple “Wonka,” which claimed first place again with $15 million in its fourth weekend of release.

according to IMDB’s Box Office Mojo.Deadline said the film, which stars Wyatt Russell and Kerry Condon and centers around a family’s discovery that their pool is haunted, “falls off the deep end.”“Wonka” moved down a notch to second place, where it enjoyed sales of $4.3 million. This week, the Timothee Chalamet-led musical fantasy set a milestone, reaching $400 million in worldwide sales, Screenrant reported.

Timothee Chalamet looks as stylish as ever during an outing in West Hollywood, Calif.

Global box office is estimated to have reached $33.9B for 2023, a 30.5% gain on 2022, according to Gower Street Analytics. While this represents continuing worldwide recovery, the figure remains 15% behind the average of the last three pre-pandemic years (2017-2019). Gower Street also recently estimated that, due in part to this year’s strike-impacted release calendar, 2024 is projected to drop to $31.5 billion, which, given today’s revised estimate for last year, would come in at 7% below 2023. 

As my colleague Anthony D’Alessandro has noted, the domestic movie box office, starved of product by overlapping strikes, will likely be trimmed by a billion dollars in 2024.

Brent Lang Executive Editor “Wonka,” a musical fantasy that has been the biggest hit of the holiday season, topped the box office on New Year’s Eve, closing 2023 on a sweet note. The film, which stars Timothée Chalamet as a more youthful Willy Wonka, grossed $22.7 million for the weekend and a projected $29.5 million for the four-day holiday. That brings the domestic gross to $140.2 million, a strong result for the $125 million production.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Aquaman and the Lost City” is quickly sinking at the box office. The comic book adventure, starring Jason Momoa as the King of Atlantis, was positioned on the calendar as the de facto blockbuster of the holiday season. But, so far, the follow-up to 2018’s megahit “Aquaman” has failed to recapture the spark of the original.

according to IMDB’s Box Office Mojo.“Wonka” also surpassed the $100 million earning mark domestically this week, as per Variety. Last week, the Timothee Chalamet-led musical fantasy had been dethroned by “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,” which is now in second place with $6.75 million in earnings.

Christmas Week rang in an estimated $281.4 million at the domestic box office, up 14% from the December 23-29 period a year ago ($246.4M), indicating that moviegoing remains healthy post-pandemic for a family-heavy yet diversified lineup of movies — this despite the lack of one big five-quad tentpole on marquees.

Brent Lang Executive Editor 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.

Naman Ramachandran Bollywood A-list actor Ayushmann Khurrana scored another major hit in 2023 with comedy sequel “Dream Girl 2.” But he is still happy to have achieved what he describes as “validation.” The film was one of several medium budget Hindi-language films that became box office successes, including “OMG 2,” “Mrs. Chatterjee vs Norway,” “Zara Hatke Zara Bachke,” “Satyaprem Ki Katha” and “12th Fail.” These effectively debunked the notion that only big budget spectacles like “Pathaan” or “Jawan” would work at the post-pandemic Bollywood box office, which had a poor 2022. “There was a conspiracy theory, maybe a year back, that Indian audiences [were] only looking for spectacles or larger-than-life films, but this year, a lot of films, which not really big budget but mid budget, did really well,” Khurrana told Variety.

There will be blood at the box office in 2024.

Brent Lang Executive Editor “Wonka,” a family-friendly look at how Willy Wonka broke into the confection game, topped the box office on Wednesday, adding $8 million to push the film past the $100 million mark domestically. The movie’s stateside gross stands at a delicious $102.5 million. “Wonka” is also performing well overseas — its global haul of more than $270 million is a strong result for Warner Bros.

Typically the momentum of Christmas moviegoing spills over into Dec. 26, but that wasn’t the case this year as Warner Bros’ Wonka led all titles with $8.9M — the second lowest take for a No. 1 movie after Christmas (since 2000) ahead of the studio’s own Wonder Woman 1984 which made $5.8M when a bulk of the nation’s cinemas were closed due to Covid. Yikes!

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “The Color Purple,” a vibrant adaptation of the book-turned-beloved-movie-turned-hit-Broadway-musical, dominated at the box office on Christmas Day. The film has outperformed expectations with $18 million from 3,152 North American theaters. It’s the largest Christmas Day opening for a film since 2009, and the second-biggest Christmas Day opening of all time.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” didn’t give Hollywood much to be merry about at the Christmas box office. The comic book sequel, starring Jason Momoa as the King of Atlantis and directed by James Wan, opened slightly below estimates with $27.7 million over the traditional weekend and a disappointing $40 million through the four-day holiday frame.