Wonka Reclaims The Box Office Top Spot From Aquaman In 2023's Final Weekend
It's that time of year again: the fuzzy window between Christmas and New Year's Eve where nobody really knows what they're supposed to be doing. Fortunately for the box office, some people have decided that the thing they're supposed to be doing is going out to see a movie. And fortunately for Timothée Chalamet's whimsical titular chocolate-maker, the plurality of those people have decided that the movie they should go and see is "Wonka."
The musical prequel film from "Paddington"/"Paddington 2" director Paul King premiered two weekends ago in the U.S. (and a week earlier internationally). It was knocked down to second place at the box office by "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom" over the Christmas weekend, but now it's back on top heading into the four-day New Year's weekend. Per Variety, "Wonka" added another $8.6 million to its domestic gross on Friday — an increase of 32% from Friday last week — and is expected to cross $300 million worldwide before the start of the new year.
Deadline reports that "Wonka" is on track for a $33 million holiday weekend, up from $28.3 million over the Christmas holiday weekend. It's pretty rare to see a movie increase its box office gross in a later weekend without expanding to more theaters, but the bright colors, music, and sweet goods of "Wonka" are well-tuned to the festive season and have broad family appeal. With a reported production budget of $125 million, this is already a win for Warner Bros.
A very happy New Year for Warner Bros.
The tussle between "Wonka" and "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom" is a family affair, since both movies were distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures — as is another New Year's weekend contender, "The Color Purple." This new adaptation of the stage musical based on Alice Walker's novel comes from director Blitz Bazawule ("Black is King") and was produced by Steven Spielberg, who directed the 1985 adaptation. It landed in theaters on Christmas Day, claiming the no. 1 spot with a staggering $18.5 million opening day total — the highest Christmas Day opening since 2009 and the second-highest Christmas Day opening of all time. (The record is still held by 2009's release, "Sherlock Holmes," which grossed $24.6 million on its festive opening day.)
"The Color Purple" is expected to land in fourth place at the New Year's box office, and is tracking for a $16.2 million four-day weekend according to Deadline. "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom" will come in second place with an estimated $26 million, and just to break up the Warner Brosopoly, Illumination/Universal Pictures' animated adventure "Migration" is headed for third place with an estimated four-day total of $21.5 million. Rounding out the top five is Amazon MGM Studios' "The Boys in the Boat," a biographical rowing drama directed by George Clooney, which is tracking to make around $11.5 million as the 2024 calendars get unwrapped.
This well-rounded buffet of offerings has helped drive the 2023 box office over the $9 billion milestone as the year ends, a marked uptick from last year's $7.32 billion domestic total, and more than double the $4.33 billion of the pandemic-blighted 2021 box office. That's still some way off the record $11.8 billion total of 2018, but we can tentatively say that movies are back, baby!