‘Wonka”, an entertainment fantasy movie from the Warner Brothers. about an eccentric chocolatier starring Timothee Chalamet whisked away the audience this Christmas season, collecting a $39 million over release weekend.
It is a good start for this $125 million-budget family movie if it sustains momentum around the holiday season. The good news however is that is that December releases, while enjoying modest success in the opening weekends, usually tend to stick around through the season. Additionally, Wonka also earned a promising “A-“in the CinemaScore and a 83% “fresh” on the Rotten Tomato meter. This is a promising sign for this PG film against other competition such as Migration, The Color Purple and the Aquaman sequel.
Released right in the time for a cheery Christmas movie, Wonka has been doing good in terms of momentum. This movie helps cement the star power of Chalamet who is expected to grace the screens with Dune 2 this coming year. He is the third actor to play the cherished Willy Wonka followed by Gene Wilder in 1971 and Johhny Depp in the 2005 remake of the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Considering the nature of Wonka played by Chalamet’s predecessors and the character of Mr Willy Wonka in the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, fans have been amused by the friendly, cheerful version played by Chalamet. His skeptical, cynical character doesn’t come through in Wonka as much as you’d expect.
The darker aspects of Willy’s character might come through in a possible sequel. The movie would serve as a perfect opportunity to explain the change in Willy Wonka’s character. As reported, although the overall feeling of Wonka is comforting, cheery and positive, for this franchise to connect to the larger story without betraying its core, layers to Willy Wonka’s character have to be peeled back.
