Box Office Report: ‘Wonka’ Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop
Box Office analysis is provided by Daniel Garris of BoxOfficeReport.com.
Weekend Estimates:
With updated estimates on Monday, Warner Bros.'s Wonka took in $14.08 million this weekend to lead the domestic box office for a second consecutive weekend and the third time over the last four frames. Wonka declined a solid 37.4 percent from last weekend. In general, family films look to have experienced a bit of relative slowing this weekend, due in part to midweek grosses for the past week still having been boosted by the holidays. The 24-day domestic total for Wonka stands at $164.30 million. That keeps the film on course to likely eventually pass the $200 million domestic mark, especially given the lack of new family fare entering the marketplace during the rest of January and February (with the exception of Disney's upcoming theatrical re-issues of Soul and Turning Red). Wonka has now passed The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (which has grossed $163.83 million through Sunday) to become the highest grossing domestic release of this November and December.
Internationally, Wonka remained strong this weekend with $30.7 million from 77 international markets. That brings the film's international total just past the $300 million mark with $303.5 million to date. The global total for Wonka stands at an impressive $467.8 million. The United Kingdom remains the film's top international market with a current total of $67.1 million. Additional totals by international market for Wonka through Sunday include $22.8 million in France, $22.8 million in Mexico, $19.2 million in Germany, $18.1 million in Australia, $14.3 million in Italy, $14.0 million in Japan, $12.8 million in Spain, $11.0 million in the Netherlands, $8.1 million in Brazil, $7.0 million in China and $5.9 million in Belgium. Wonka grossed an estimated $1.0 million from global IMAX screens this weekend, which brings the film's global IMAX total to $16.1 million.
With actuals, Universal and Blumhouse's Night Swim debuted in a fairly close second place with $11.797 million. The PG-13 rated horror film pretty much opened in the middle of consensus expectations, which ranged from roughly $8 million to $15 million heading into the weekend. While Night Swim opened lower than usual for both a Blumhouse film and an early January horror release, the opening weekend performance was still respectable given expectations and the film's modest price-tag. Horror films tend to be fairly critic-proof at the box office, especially on opening weekend, but critical reviews for Night Swim have been so overwhelmingly negative on average, that they may have limited opening weekend potential for the film a bit (especially as a non-sequel). Night Swim doesn't look to be going over than much better with audiences, as it received a lackluster C rating on CinemaScore. Also concerning for Night Swim going forward is that after grossing an estimated $1.45 million from Thursday preview shows that began at 5PM, the film had a front-loaded opening weekend to preview gross ratio of 8.14 to 1. The audience demographics for Night Swim were very evenly split, as the film's audience skewed 51 percent male, 49 percent female, 52 percent under 25 and 48 percent over 25.
Internationally, Night Swim started out with $5.9 million from 36 international markets. That places the film's global start at $17.7 million. International debuts this weekend included $1.17 million in Mexico, $0.75 million in the United Kingdom, $0.71 million in France, $0.48 million in Australia and $0.39 million in Saudi Arabia. Night Swim still has a number of major international markets to open in, including Brazil (January 18), Germany (February 8), Spain (February 9), Italy (February 22), South Korea (March 27) and Japan (June 7).
Warner Bros.'s Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and Universal's Migration remained close to one another domestically this weekend, with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom continuing to have the slight edge in the rankings. With updated estimates, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom declined a respectable 42.0 percent to take third place with $10.59 million. This weekend's performance inched Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom just past the $100 million domestic mark, with $100.001 million through 17 days of domestic release. While Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is performing well below 2018's Aquaman domestically, that had been widely expected. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is also on pace to end up as the third highest grossing DCEU film domestically to be released after Aquaman (behind only 2022's Black Adam and 2019's Shazam!).
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom continued to fare far better internationally, as the film grossed $31.3 million from 77 international markets this weekend. Respective totals for Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom stand at $236.5 million internationally and at $336.5 million globally. Totals by international market for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom through Sunday include $54.5 million in China, $17.7 million in Mexico, $13.5 million in France, $12.8 million in Germany, $10.5 million in the United Kingdom, $10.1 million in Brazil, $10.0 million in Indonesia, $9.4 million in Australia, $6.7 million in South Korea, $5.7 million in Italy, $5.3 million in Taiwan and $5.2 million in Spain. The film grossed an estimated $2.5 million from global IMAX screens this weekend, for a global IMAX take of $31.0 million ($9.5 million domestically, $10.2 million in China and $11.3 million internationally outside of China). Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom will open in Japan this coming Friday (January 12).
With actuals, Universal and Illumination's Migration took fourth place this weekend with $9.997 million. Migration declined 41.2 percent from last weekend, and as mentioned, family films in general experienced some relative slowing this weekend. In the bigger picture, Migration continues to perform well with a 17-day domestic take of $77.57 million. Migration is running a reasonable 28.6 percent behind the $108.66 million 19-day gross of 2021's Sing 2 after its third weekend (which opened on a Wednesday, and declined a similar 42.5 percent in its third weekend to gross $11.60 million). Migration will likely hold up well next weekend over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday frame.
Internationally, Migration grossed $17.0 million this weekend from 73 international markets. This weekend's international performance included debuts of $1.6 million in Poland and $1.5 million in Brazil. Through Sunday, respective totals for Migration stand at $74.5 million internationally and $152.0 million globally. Additional international totals by market for Migration through Sunday include $11.9 million in Germany, $9.4 million in France, $6.8 million in Mexico, $5.1 million in Australia, $3.4 million in Spain, $3.3 million in Italy, $3.2 million in the Netherlands and $2.2 million in Belgium. Migration will open in South Korea this coming Wednesday (January 10), in the United Kingdom on February 2 and in Japan on March 15.
With actuals, Sony's Anyone But You rounded out this weekend's top five with $9.751 million. That was up an exceptional 11.4 percent from last weekend's performance. While there are previous instances of certain films having very slim declines the weekend after New Year's weekend (especially when New Year's Eve fell during the previous weekend itself), films in wide release experiencing a post-New Year's weekend increase in such situations is unheard of (without the aid of a significant expansion). Anyone But You had a three-day start of just $6.00 million over Christmas weekend, but after experiencing increases each of the past two weekends, the romantic comedy has grossed $43.96 million through 17 days of release. That already gives Anyone But You a current total gross to opening weekend ratio of 7.33 to 1 and it doesn't look like the film will be slowing down anytime soon. Internationally, Anyone But You grossed an estimated $5.4 million this weekend from 19 select international markets. That brings the film's international total to $14.7 million and current global haul to $58.7 million.
With actuals, Amazon MGM Studios' The Boys in the Boat placed in sixth with $5.584 million. The Boys in the Boat declined a very solid 33.5 percent from last weekend. The 14-day domestic total for The Boys in the Boat stands at a stronger than expected $33.46 million. Fellow Christmas Day release Warner Bros.'s The Color Purple took seventh place this weekend with an updated estimated take of $4.65 million. Despite good critical reviews and good word of mouth, The Color Purple was still unable to stabilize this weekend and declined a sharp 60.4 percent from last weekend. The Color Purple has grossed $54.50 million through 14 days, which is an underwhelming total on the heels of the film's $18.15 million opening day gross on Christmas Day (and given the film's price-tag).
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