Wonka Tops Box Office Again

Warner Bros. has three movies in the top five this week, but it probably still isn't thrilled with how Aquaman 2 is faring.

By Russ Burlingame

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom continues to struggle at the box office, as Wonka returned to the top spot in U.S. theaters last night. Aquaman dropped to third place, behind not just Wonka but also Migration. The Color Purple and Anyone But You rounded out the top five, with what is likely to be a pretty good model for what the overall box office is likely to look like this weekend, since there isn't much in the way of notable releases slated for the final frame of 2023. The biggest takeaway here is that Wonka continues to have some appeal, while Aquaman 2 is sinking fast -- likely a frustrating outcome for Warner Bros., since the first one didn't open huge, either, but did manage to have long legs at the box office and ultimately eclipsed the $1 billion mark.

Aquaman was the only DC Extended Universe title to pass that mark -- a status symbol normalized by Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight and then several Marvel Cinematic Universe outings. Joker passed it, too -- but obviously, that film wasn't part of the shared universe that Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom brings to a close. We'll see how Joker: Folie a Deux fares next year, when there are no shared-universe movies coming from DC and Marvel's only planned titles are tangential titles Deadpool 3, Kraven the Hunter, and Venom 3.

Wonka took home $8 million on Thursday, according to studio estimates released via Variety, pushing its domestic haul past $110 million. the movie hasn't been a monumental success domestically, but it only cost $125 -- about half of Aquaman's rumored budget -- and it has earned $180 million overseas, cementing it as a solid hit.

Migration, an animated movie from Universal and Illumination (the folks behind the Minions), took home $6.5 million on Thursday, bringing its domestic take to a decent-but-modest $37.1 million. The movie cost less than $75 million, so it's entirely possible it could turn out to be a fairly profitable venture if it either has long legs or does well on the home entertainment market, but it never looked like it was going to be a blockbuster, and Universal didn't do much to market it.

Aquaman's $5.8 million on Thursday took its domestic gross to $58.3 million so far. It opened at about twice its domestic gross overseas -- which mirrors the first movie's performance, since that film earned way more outside North America than it did at home. Still, it's looking at about $150 million total so far, which isn't going to make it a hit.

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The Color Purple earned a little over $3 million. The Oscar contender is currently sitting at a little over $32 million against a reported $90 million budget. Of course, it was designed to be a prestige movie more than a blockbuster, so we'll have to wait until at least mid-January to judge how happy Warners is likely to be with it. The top five rounded out with another couple million for Sony's Anyone But You, which has made about half of its $25 million budget back so far.

In spite of a rough year that included disastrous outings for The Flash and Shazam!: Fury of the Gods, Warner Bros. is closing out strong with three of its movies in the top five and, of course, the year's biggest hit in the form of Barbie.

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