Timothee Chalamet stars as a young Willy Wonka in Warner Bros.’ “Wonka.”
Warner Bros. Discovery
A younger, sweeter Willy Wonka enters theaters this weekend. Oh, and he does so much more singing.
Expectations are high that “Wonka” will deliver families to theaters, because the film has already generated goodwill with critics, scoring a transparent “Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
The family-friendly film is predicted to drum up between $35 million and $45 million during its domestic opening weekend. “Wonka’s” Thursday and Friday presales are reportedly trending ahead of other kid-focused releases this yr comparable to Disney’s “Wish,” Universal’s “Trolls Band Together” and Warner Bros.’ “Shazam! Fury of the Gods,” in response to BoxOffice.com.
With kids starting their holiday school breaks and limited competition within the family space, “Wonka” could see consistent ticket sales over the subsequent few weeks. Universal’s animated “Migration,” due out next week, is its only direct rival.
Warner Bros.’ “Wonka,” a prequel to the 1971 “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” which was based on a Roald Dahl novel, sees a fresh-faced Timothée Chalamet donning the famed top hat. Not yet a world-renowned chocolatier, Willy is seeking to arrange shop within the Galeries Gourmet, an epicenter of chocolate sales in an unnamed city. And Hugh Grant shows up as a diminutive, orange-hued Oompa Loompa.
Still, audiences have balked at numerous legacy-driven franchise style movies this yr. Recent additions to established franchises like Indiana Jones, Mission Unattainable and Transformers, in addition to several movies from Marvel and DC, didn’t perform particularly well.
I’ve got one other puzzle for you
It is also unclear how general audiences will react to the indisputable fact that “Wonka” is a musical, although the unique film was stuffed with songs. Trailers for the film hinted at several dance numbers and even showcased Chalamet singing “Pure Imagination,” which Wilder sang to memorable effect within the 1971 movie. However the marketing for “Wonka” didn’t reveal that there are around half a dozen original songs crafted for the film.
Warner Bros. didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
Musicals have been hit-or-miss on the box office in recent times.
“Studios and filmmakers are sometimes loath to put a genre label on their movies for fear it might alienate some within the potential audience pool,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “Nowhere has this been truer than with the category of musical.”
Prior to the pandemic, movies like “The Biggest Showman,” the Pitch Perfect series and the 2 “Mamma Mia” delighted audiences .Nonetheless, more recently, it’s only been animated features like “Frozen 2” and “Encanto” from Disney which have enamored audiences.
Hollywood has attempted to bring numerous Broadway musicals to the large screen since 2019, but audiences didn’t turn up. In fact, a lot of those titles — “Within the Heights,” “West Side Story” and “Dear Evan Hansen” — arrived during Covid restrictions and catered toward older viewers who were less-inclined to enter public places on the time.
“Ultimately, like many movies these days, [musicals] must ring a bell with their core audience and generate strong word of mouth since it is fair to say that musicals are very much feast-or-famine from a business approach,” said Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at BoxOffice.com. “But after they hit, they will hit big.”
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal is the distributor of “Migration,” “Trolls Band Together,” the “Pitch Perfect” film franchise and “Dear Evan Hansen.” NBCUniversal also owns Rotten Tomatoes.
