Wonka Slides Past Impressive Box Office Milestone

Wonka is soaring to new heights after passing a box office milestone. The Warner Bros. Discovery movie crept up over $100 million at the domestic box office this week. As it stands, the movie has also garnered over $270 million globally. The studio has to feel good about star Timothée Chalamet as Dune 2 nears in 2024. As the lead actor for the sequel, itself a massive success for Warner Bros. not too long ago, the film is sitting pretty. But, Paul King and his crew should be commended for delivering a family film people seem to be enjoying. With not a lot of entrants rushing into the box office picture this weekend, it wouldn’t be hard to see Chalamet’s latest atop the ladder again.

Even as the DCEU’s swan song continues to underperform, there’s plenty to smile about over at Warner Bros. Discovery. Buoyed by Barbie’s blockbuster summer, the studio has fared as well as can be expected in this pandemic era year. (All the numbers are nowhere near their 2019 high points, and it’s not like that’s going to end anytime soon…) Alongside Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and Wonka is The Color Purple. The adaptation of the popular novel also surprised observers with a $29 million domestic box office total. In fact, that film will probably be the best bet to overtake Wonka this weekend. So, the chocolatier rides on.

Is Wonka 2 Coming?

As the box office continues to heat up for Wonka, there’s already some speculation about Chalamet putting on his top hat again. Wonka 2 might not be a certainty, but director Paul King told Total Film that they’ve thought about it already. With all this positive attention and smaller budget, it wouldn’t be the strangest thing in the world to see Warner Bros. Discovery green light a new one.

“I would definitely like to do more,” King told them. “And I’d like to spend more time in this world. Dahl was definitely interested in taking Willy Wonka on. There’s drafts that didn’t really go anywhere, and there’s a short story. He didn’t really write sequels, but this was the one book where he clearly felt there was more in the tank there. There’s an awful lot more Wonka story that we have that we would like to tell. It’s not like Dune: Part One where you go, ‘This is what’s happening in Part Two.’ Hopefully it works exquisitely as a stand-alone movie. But I would definitely like to do more. And I’d like to spend more time in this world, and meet some more Oompa Loompas.

How Good Is Wonka?

Despite these strong box office returns, before Wonka hit theaters, a lot of people wondered how good the movie could be. Well, ComicBook.com‘s Kofi Outlaw says that the movie is full of heart. That’s probably why it’s scoring so well with audiences. Chalamet’s performance pulls the entire project together.

“Chalamet is one of the only choices for an actor that fans would even consider worthy of following in the footsteps of Wilder and Depp – and with good reason. He’s shown that he has character-acting chops to go with his star charisma across a variety of genres,” our review reads “With that said, the first good thing to report about Wonka is that Timothée Chalamet does the job of making the character his own, in ways that his predecessors never could.”

“There’s much of the film that works simply because Chalamet is both captivating to watch, and endearing as this more fleshed-out version of the Willy Wonka character,” the review continued. “He captures elements of both Wilder’s whimsy and Depp’s weirdness and rolls them into something entirely fresh and new. It’s a role that Chalamet could arguably return to again – much like Depp with his Captain Jack Sparrow.” 

Are you surprised by Wonka? Let us know down in the comments!