Timothée Chalamet is on his way to #1 at the box office this weekend with his new “Wonka” movie — and while the figures so far are impressive … Johnny Depp still reigns supreme.
The first-day numbers are in for Timmy’s latest flick, and like we said … they’re quite solid heading into the weekend and promise to see him and WB raking in somewhere between $35-$40 million domestically by the time Sunday rolls around.
Between Thursday previews and Friday’s full day of showings, “Wonka” has earned about $14.4 million thus far — which, again, puts the family-friendly film well ahead of the competition. Frankly, there isn’t much standing in its way — just a bunch of indie films and leftovers from weeks prior … so Tim has a relatively clear path to dominate ticket sales.
Of course, some wanted to see how he’d fare compared to the old ‘Wonka’ movies — specifically, against JD’s version from back in the 2000s, the most recent iteration.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, TC’s numbers (real/projected) don’t hold a candle to Johnny and Tim Burton — ’05’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” made quite a bit more money at the time … both in its first official day as well as what it earned in its opening weekend domestically.
First-day numbers for JD’s movie were about $20 mil at the time, and through the weekend … about $56 mil. Through its entire theatrical run, ‘CATCF’ hauled in more than $206 mil.
In other words, Johnny’s Wonka is still king in terms of cold hard cash — and even critically … it held its own in the reviews. Same goes for Timothee BTW … his latest “Wonka” flick has a respectable 84% on Rotten Tomatoes, similar to JD’s 83% for his 2005 offering.
Now, there is context for why Tim’s box office numbers might not be as strong in 2023 — fact is, people just aren’t going to the movies the way they used to … so all things considered, the “Wonka” haul is actually pretty damn good in the modern era, especially in this economy.
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Oh, and if you’re wondering where the OG Gene Wilder fits into this whole box office juxtaposition — his 1971 version didn’t do all that great at the box office at the time. It only made about $4 million domestically through its whole run ($22 mil adjusted for inflation).
Of course, it’s arguably the most beloved ‘Wonka’ there is … although, Tim’s might be 2nd.
