Wonka Passes $600 Million Ahead Of Timothee Chalamet's Return In Dune: Part Two
10 weekends into its ridiculously impressive theatrical run, "Wonka" has passed a massive milestone. Director Paul King's prequel to Roald Dahl's beloved novel "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" has charmed its way past the $600 million mark at the global box office. Its run is undoubtedly nearing its end, but this proved to be a much bigger hit than anyone expected it to be. In the process, it helped get movie theaters through an incredibly difficult time. Plus, it sets Timothée Chalamet up for one heck of a year, as "Dune: Part 2" is just around the corner.
"Wonka" pulled in another $3.5 million this past weekend, putting it at number six on the charts even as both "Bob Marley: One Love" and "Madame Web" arrived in theaters. The chocolate-soaked musical actually posted an increase over its previous weekend haul of $3 million. Not bad for a movie that came out in mid-December. That now brings its domestic total to $210.7 million to go with an even larger haul overseas of $395.1 million, giving it a grand total of $605.8 million.
Even against a sizable $125 million budget, this has become a massive winner for Warner Bros. The film stars Chalamet as Willy Wonka and shows his earliest days of becoming a world-famous chocolatier. King brought that "Paddington" charm with him and it worked like gangbusters. It had already surpassed Johnny Depp's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" ($475 million worldwide). Everything else has been icing on the cake. It's a well-iced cake, to put it lightly.
With Wonka, Timothee Chalamet becomes a true movie star
Warner Bros. is now poised to roll right from this hit into another one led by Chalamet, as things currently look very good for the forthcoming "Dune" sequel. The studio recently re-released "Dune" in theaters to help build hype for "Part 2." It did reasonably well on opening weekend but has actually made a whopping $30 million worldwide. That bodes very well for the sequel, which has earned high praise on social media following the film's premiere. It feels very much like one of those situations where the sequel does better than its predecessor.
More than anything, we're seeing Chalamet emerge as a bonafide movie star. That's a very good thing as so many of our bankable movie stars are getting old, with Tom Cruise, The Rock, Tom Hanks, and Robert Downey Jr., among others, in their 50s, 60s, or even 70s. It's tough to find a star capable of selling tickets below the age of 40. So, Chalamet's emergence is certainly welcome. Director Denis Villeneuve, for his part, even cast "Dune: Part Two" keeping younger stars in mind. He certainly seems to have nailed it with his choice of lead.
As for the Willy Wonka of it all, WB now has to decide if they want this to be a one-and-done, or if they want to try and build a franchise around Chalamet. A sequel could easily happen, one that sees Willy building his legendary chocolate factory. If things go really well, it could become a trilogy with the third film being a remake of the familiar tale we all know. But the studio might choose to just take the money and run. We shall see.
"Wonka" is in theaters and on VOD now.