“Wonka” Dominates the Box Office During New Year’s Holiday Weekend

Wonka is dominating the New Year’s weekend box office race.

The Willy Wonka origin story, starring Timothée Chalamet, is on track to earn $31.8 million in the U.S. during the four-day holiday weekend, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Those numbers will reportedly give the Paul King-directed musical a total domestic tally of $142 million through Monday (Jan. 1). Wonka, which opened in mid-December, also topped last weekend’s box office to the tune of $39 million in the U.S.

The film, an updated musical take on the beloved 1964 Roald Dahl novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, stars Chalamet as a young candymaker Willy Wonka, with a supporting cast including Hugh Grant, Olivia Colman, Keegan-Michael Key, Calah Lane, Paterson Joseph, Matt Lucas, Sally Hawkins, Rowan Atkinson and Natasha Rothwell, among others.

Leaning into the lyrical aspect of the story, director King said in September that he was determined not to make the movie a “musical where people are singing dialogue to each other for no discernible reason. I felt like it was more like a movie with songs than a musical.”

Wonka isn’t the only musical film to pull in big numbers over the holiday weekend. The Color Purple, produced by Oprah and Steven Spielberg, places fourth on the chart with estimated earnings of $17.7 million through Monday, THR reports.

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