Wonka Opens Strong at International Box Office

While domestic audiences still have a few more days to wait, Wonka opened in theaters internationally this weekend and the Timothée Chalamet starring film is off to a strong start. The film launched to $43.2 million across 37 markets, according to Deadline. It’s an opening box office take that is well ahead of box office projections headed into the weekend. Wonka did particularly well in the United Kingdom over the weekend, with $11.1 million, making it the biggest opening for a Warner Bros. film this year behind Barbie. Wonka opens in theaters in the United States as well as 40 additional international markets on December 15th.

Wonka Is Doing Well With Critics

Reviews for Wonka have already begun to come out and the film is already doing well with critics. At the time of this article’s writing, Wonka is Certified Fresh with a positive rating of 84 percent based on 104 reviews.

“With director Paul King at the helm and some solid new songs at the ready, the warmly old-fashioned Wonka puts a suitably sweet spin on the classic character while still leaving some room for the source material’s darker undertones,” the website’s “Critics Consensus” reads.

What Is Wonka About?

Based on the extraordinary character at the center of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl’s most iconic children’s book and one of the best-selling children’s books of all time, Wonka tells the wondrous story of how the world’s greatest inventor, magician and chocolate-maker became the beloved Willy Wonka we know today. The film is described as an intoxicating mix of magic and music, mayhem, and emotion, all told with fabulous heart and humor. Starring Timothée Chalamet in the title role, this irresistibly vivid and inventive big screen spectacle will introduce audiences to a young Willy Wonka, chock-full of ideas and determined to change the world one delectable bite at a time—proving that the best things in life begin with a dream, and if you’re lucky enough to meet Willy Wonka, anything is possible.

Wonka will also feature performances from Olivia Colman (The Favourite, The Crown), Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean, Love, Actually), Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water), Keegan Michael Key (The Prom, Schmigadoon!), Mathew Baynton (Ghosts), Jim Carter (Downton Abbey), Rich Fulcher (Marriage Story), Paterson Joseph (Noughts + Crosses), Calah Lane (The Day Shall Come), Colin O’Brien (The Mothership), Natasha Rothwell (White Lotus), Rakhee Thakrar (Sex Education), and Ellie White (The Other One).

Director Paul King is also reuniting with several of his Paddington stars for the new film including Tom Davis, Simon Farnaby, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, and Matt Lucas. David Heyman (Harry Potter, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) is producing with Luke Kelly (The Witches) and Alexandra Derbyshire (Jurassic World: Dominion). 

“Like many people, when there are remakes, I feel very protective over the original character and versions you love,” Chalamet explained in a recent interview. “Your eyebrows go up with skepticism about [whether] this is a legitimate, worthwhile story or a cynical money grab. But I was reading the first three pages of the script, and the song ‘Hat Full of Dreams’ was in there. And there was no music to accompany it, but the lyrics were so clever. [It’s] about this young Willy, who was definitively not the crazy, cynical, kind of jaded, brain-fried version that we see in the two prior films but was very hopeful, young, ambitious, won’t-take-no-for-an-answer, maybe a little naive. I think that’s very clever.”

Wonka opens in theaters in the United States on December 15th.