Crowd pleasing ‘Wonka’ wins for another weekend
Timothée Chalamet and “Wonka” topped the box office charts for the third time in its four weekends in theaters. Warner Bros.’ 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 December 2017 and went on to gross $435 million globally.
“‘Wonka’ is a perfect crowd-pleaser released at the perfect time and it’s going to ride that wave into January,” Dergarabedian said. “It’s an opportune time for it to be in the marketplace.”
After finishing 2023 on a high note, 2024 is getting off to a slower start than last year, down around 16%, with the Universal/Blumhouse horror “Night Swim” as the only major new offering in theaters. The movie stars Wyatt Russell and Kerry Condon as a couple with a sinister, supernatural swimming pool.
“Night Swim” drew in an estimated $12 million in its first weekend in 3,250 theaters in North America against a reported $15 million production budget. Including international showings in 36 markets, “Night Swim” is heading towards a $17.7 million global debut.
“Not only did it perform really well at the box office, but it’s going to make us look at every swimming pool with a little more trepidation,” said Jim Orr, Universal’s head of domestic distribution.
Horror movies are largely critic-proof, but with fairly negative reviews and a C CinemaScore rating, it’s unlikely to repeat the viral success of last year’s demon doll movie “M3GAN.”
“We don’t have ‘Avatar: The Way of Water,’ which totally dominated the box office a year ago, or ‘M3GAN,’ which made that a bigger weekend,” said Dergarabedian. “But it’s a bit early to call it in terms of how the year is going to turn out.”
Warner Bros. and Universal placed third and fourth on the charts as well. Warner Bros.’ DC superhero movie “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” earned $10.6 million in its third weekend, bumping its domestic tally just over the $100 million mark. Universal’s animated “Migration” added $10.3 million, bringing its running domestic total to $77.8 million.
Columbia’s Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney romantic comedy “Anyone But You” landed in fifth place with $9.5 million, up 9% from the weekend before. The movie has grossed $43.7 million to date.
Cineplexes are full of awards contenders, including “The Color Purple,” “The Iron Claw” and “Poor Things,” and the Golden Globes broadcast Sunday night helped spread awareness for those and other films.
“The Golden Globes are like a three-hour infomercial for the industry,” Dergarabedian said. “There’s no downside to having a very high profile telecast that puts a spotlight on the movies.”
“The Color Purple,” a new musical take on Alice Walker’s landmark novel, seemed to arrive as an instant hit.
Awash in critical exultation, the movie rolled into theaters on Christmas Day and sold more than $18 million in tickets, a near record for the holiday. Audiences gave it an A grade in CinemaScore exit polls. Oprah Winfrey, who produced the film with Steven Spielberg, celebrated on Instagram. “I’m overwhelmed with gratitude,” she wrote.
But the sizzle has turned to a sputter.
“The Color Purple,” which cost Warner Bros. at least $90 million to make and another $40 million to market, collected an estimated $4.8 million from 3,218 theaters in the United States and Canada over the weekend, according to Comscore, which compiles box office data. It was enough only for seventh place. What happened? In Hollywood parlance, the movie has not broadened beyond a “specialty audience.” To put it more candidly, “The Color Purple,” enthusiastically received by Black moviegoers, needs more white, Hispanic and Asian ticket buyers to give it a chance. The film’s opening-weekend audience was 65% Black, 19% white, 8% Hispanic and about 5% Asian, according to PostTrak, a service that provides studios with demographic information on ticket buyers.
Warner Bros. has not given up.
“I think the jury is going to be out for several weeks, as people talk to their friends about what movies they have seen and enjoyed — what has moved them and uplifted them — and the film continues to be honored by awards groups,” said Jeff Goldstein, Warner’s president of domestic distribution.
In total, “The Color Purple” has now taken in about $55 million, with advance group sales contributing to the large Christmas Day result. (Theaters and studios split ticket sales roughly 50-50.)
In a promising sign for the film’s box office, more white and Hispanic moviegoers came out in recent days. The film’s second-weekend demographic breakdown was 47% Black, 39% white, 10% Hispanic and less than 4% Asian, according to PostTrak data.