wonkaworldwide

[wonkaworldwide]

Can Wonka (2023) beat Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at the box office?

We’re about a year out from the release of Wonka.  The upcoming 2023 film, directed by Paul King and starring Timothée Chalamet as Willy Wonka, will be the third film in the Wonkaverse™, following 1971′s Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and 2005′s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

I’m not here to discuss whether or not the 2023 film will be a quality movie—I’m almost certain it will be.  I’m here to discuss money.  Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was obviously a huge hit in 2005, becoming the eighth-highest-grossing film worldwide in that year.  Charlie’s $474 million gross is extremely admirable, but $474 million doesn’t make it unbeatable.  It’s within striking range of what the 2023 film could do.  The question is: can Wonka beat Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at the box office?  I’ll be looking at several reasons going for it and going against it.

The Roald Dahl curse

When Netflix acquired the Roald Dahl catalog in 2021, Forbes’ Scott Mendelson described the acquisition as a “huge risk”.  Why?  Well, Roald Dahl’s films haven’t historically done well at the box office.  With the obvious exception of Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl film adaptations are almost always a financial failure.

Not a single Roald Dahl adaptation (sans Charlie) has grossed more than double its budget.  On paper, Steven Spielberg’s The BFG may look like it made some money, but if you take into account the advertising and marketing costs, it ended up being one of Spielberg’s only “money-losing mega-flops” (see the above Forbes article).  Financial information is largely unavailable on 2020′s The Witches, but considering it went straight to HBO Max during the pandemic and received disastrous reviews from critics, I think it’s safe to say that film was not one of Dahl’s successes.

Again, financial success does not correlate to critical success, as almost all of Dahl’s adaptations have become cult classics, and the only mega-blockbuster is probably the most divisive film adaptation of the bunch.  However, I agree with Forbes that pursuing any Roald Dahl adaptation nowadays is a big risk.

However, the magic that Charlie and the Chocolate Factory had is (arguably) star power.  Any Johnny Depp/Tim Burton collaboration in the mid-2000s was a license to print money.  Now, Paul King isn’t a household name, mainly because he hasn’t done much outside of those two Paddington movies.  Timothée Chalamet, however, is a household name, and his loyal army of young supporters does bear a resemblance to the following Depp had in the 2000s.

It also helps the 2023 film’s prospects that Willy Wonka is by far the most iconic and recognizable Roald Dahl property, and that the 1971′s financial underperformance could be considered a fluke since it was released more than fifty years ago when moviegoing in general was vastly different.  This was years before summer movies were considered a thing.  Wonka will be the definitive factor as to whether or not the Willy Wonka property is the one exception to the Roald Dahl curse, or if Charlie and the Chocolate Factory alone is the exception.

Releasing a candy-themed movie in Winter (and competition)

I’ll preempt this by saying that it’s entirely possible that Wonka may succumb to a shuffle in Warner Bros. release lineup.  Preferably, that would result in the movie being released sooner rather than later, but November sees the release of Dune: Part Two and two back-to-back Chamalet films seem unlikely.

Wonka (coming December 15, 2023) is the first Wonka movie to be released in December, as Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory was released in June and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was released in July.  This seems like a no-brainer and will most likely help the film rather than hurt it.  There are all kinds of snowy environments (from what we’ve seen from the on-location shooting) and any movie about candy will be a perfect Christmas film.

It’s easy to look at Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’s box office and say that it’s a safe bet to release a movie like this in summer, but the truth is that the summer of 2005 wasn't a summer populated with hits.  July 2005 saw the release of Fantastic Four... Sky High... uh... March of the Penguins... and that's it as far as movies that kids would have any interest in seeing (unless there was some awesome kid out there eagerly awaiting The Devils Rejects).  In fact, July 2005 was such an underwhelming month for kids movies that Charlie’s main competition for it’s opening weekend was considered to be the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (the book, not the movie).  That’s right, there were a handful of people that just didn't go to the theaters that weekend because they were reading.

But speaking of competition, let’s look at the movies that are coming out the same weekend as Wonka...

Oh... there aren’t any...

Yeah, it’s probably because we’re still twelve months out, but Wonka is the only movie scheduled for the first nineteen days of December 2023.  Obviously, this isn’t going to stay the same, so we’ll just have to see what movies Wonka has to face against in its opening weekend.  December 20th sees the release of The Color Purple, which is also a musical.  It’s too early to say what age group it’ll be aiming for, but considering the first movie was PG-13 and the story is so profound, I’d imagine there will be families seeing it.  December 20th also sees the release of the next Ghostbusters movie, which is an odd choice because I’ve always associated Ghostbusters with autumn and halloween, but whatever. This, to me, poses the strongest competition to Wonka of all the December releases on the calendar so far.  It’s releasing only five days after Wonka, and I think once Ghostbusters hits theaters, the kids are going to dig the adventure and spookiness, and Ghostbusters will be the go-to movie for families after December 20th.  But more on what kids will be looking for in Wonka later...

Appeal to children

Or actually, more on that now!  This one may not spring to mind for most people, but as someone who was five years old when Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was released, I remember the movie being sold to me on the appeal of the child characters.  Charlie and the Chocolate Factory had a pretty great marketing campaign that emphasized each of the nasty children.  As a kid, I thought the kids were the highlight of the film.  Wonka wasn’t a character I appreciated until I got older.

I mention this because Wonka most likely won’t have child characters as iconic as the previous two iterations, and part of me wonders if a kid is going to see the promotional material for Wonka and beg their parents to see it.

The chocolate factory was also an appealing aspect to 5-year-old me.  A chocolate waterfall with a pink boat, a room with squirrels, the glass elevator passing by room after room of dream-like gadgetry...  Obviously, because this is a prequel, there will most likely be very little of the chocolate factory in the movie, and they won’t be used in the marketing because they wouldn’t want to spoil the end.  Now because it is a Willy Wonka movie, there’s going to be some kind of magic-like candy environments (we know they are going to Loompaland), even though it won’t be the factory itself.  We don’t know anything about what the movie has shot on soundstages, but one can imagine it’s absolutely more magical than the on-location shooting they were doing in dour Londontown.

How much it appeals to children is one aspect of the project that I can’t really judge it on because there hasn’t been a trailer yet.  I will say that, beyond the child characters and the factory, the trailers need to have a tone that looks fun.  Wonka so far looks smart and it looks sentimental, which means it’s skewing close to the 70s film.  There needs to be some wackiness, some adventure and some pure childish fun—all things that the Tim Burton movie got across very well in it’s advertising—to make Wonka a movie that kids will drag their parents to, and not the other way around.

What?  A Willy Wonka prequel?  Can’t Hollywood get some new ideas blah blah blah

Even though there have only been two Willy Wonka movies over the last fifty years, people somehow have it in their minds that the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory franchise is one that Hollywood continually pillages.  I mean, there have been 25 James Bond movies in roughly the same amount of time.

However, a major hurdle that Wonka will have to deal with is perception.  Most people are going to say to themselves “Why are they making a Willy Wonka prequel?  Who asked for this?”  Admit it, you were saying this yourself before you learned about the movie’s exceptional cast and crew (heck, you may still be saying it).  The public nowadays is very keen to the notion that Hollywood pillages every franchise it can lay it’s hands on, with Disney’s endless barrage of remakes, prequels, and legacy sequels being the most prominent example.  The advertisers of Wonka are going to have a challenge convincing the public that this a story worth telling and worth seeing, and not just a soulless studio attempt at making a buck off the Willy Wonka name.

Of course, the film’s marketing hasn’t even begun.  Once people see some images and hear some songs, things may change, but if I were to gauge public sentiment towards Wonka right now, I would say it looks pretty unfavorable for the movie.  Critics seem more optimistic than the general public, but that’s mainly because Paul King is well known among critics but not so much among Joe Public.

However, Wonka can overcome this because Charlie and the Chocolate Factory overcame this.  Charlie faced a great deal of hostility prior to its release, from people refusing to give the movie a chance because they held the 1971 film in high regard.  Tim Burton himself commented on this in June 2005: “The way people talk, it’s like we’re taking copies of the cold movie and burning them so no one can ever see them again.”  And despite the die-hard 1971 fans who refused to watch any Willy Wonka that wasn’t Gene Wilder, Charlie went on to become the 58th highest-grossing-film of all time at it’s time of release, and a whole generation of children grew up with it and consider it their preferred version of the tale.  I’ve never been so proud.

Wonka has the ability to do just this, become a hit and become the preferred version of story for a generation of children, and piss a bunch of people who grew up on the previous two adaptations (although I hope 2005 fans are more keen to welcome it into the Wonka family).

The quality of the movie itself

Yeah, my final point is that Wonka’s box office performance will be impacted by just how good it is.  The public isn’t particularly looking forward to another Willy Wonka movie, but if they hear it’s really good, like really good, then people will flock towards it.  This is comparable to Top Gun earlier this year.  To me, it seemed like there was absolutely no hype for this movie whatsoever, but it gained popularity just because of how good it was (haven't seen it so I can’t confirm this).  I knew people who went and saw it without seeing the first Top Gun.

Paul King obviously has a great track record with family films, with his Paddington movies averaging at 98% on Rotten Tomatoes—compare this to Willy Wonka’s 91% and Charlie’s 83%.  This alone shows that King is capable of making a Willy Wonka film is not only good, but that could unseat both versions as being the definitive Willy Wonka film, as both Charlie and Willy Wonka have their own problems: the 1971 film being dated in several areas and having some serious pacing issues, and the 2005 film exploring Wonka’s upbringing in a polarizing way.

However, it’s also possible that the movie FUCKING SUCKS!!!1!!!  I’ll use Tim Burton as an example: he had a nearly flawless filmography in the 1980s and 1990s.  Honestly, try to find a bad film among the following: Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Batman, Batman Returns, Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Mars Attacks!, Sleepy Hollow.  And then in 2001 he did Planet of the Apes, which was not only his worst movie at the time, but a frequent contender for worst movie of the year and won the Razzie for Worst Remake.  Thankfully, Burton redeemed himself immediately after with four consecutive bangers: Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride, and Sweeney Todd.

(This may be a bad example because Planet of the Apes was still the ninth-highest-grossing film of 2001, and therefore it’s negative reception didn’t affect it’s box office gross...)

It’s difficult to assess Paul King overall as a director, because while he’s done arguably the two most acclaimed family films of the 21st century, he hasn’t really done anything outside of the Paddington films to further prove his filmmaking prowess.  He did a movie in 2009 called Bunny and the Bull, which has a 6.6 on IMDB, a 3.3/5 on Letterboxd, a 67% critics score and a 65% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes—every metric indicating that it’s pretty decent but nowhere near Paddington.

The soundtrack alone could be enough to boost Wonka to become a hit, considering the previous two films have fantastic soundtracks.  The (Academy Award-nominated) 1971 soundtrack has since become ingrained into pop culture, and the (Grammy-nominated) 2005 soundtrack has some of Danny Elfman’s best compositions.  The 2023 film’s music will be composed by Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy.  I’d be lying if I said I’ve ever heard any of his stuff, but he’s a more inspired choice than your usual Hans Zimmer or Alexandre Desplat or whoever (I don’t know who the go-to-guy for musicals would be).

So will Wonka beat Charlie at the box office?

Looking at all the facts, Wonka faces an uphill challenge.  Ultimately, no, I do not believe that Wonka will make more money than Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  I expect Wonka to have a lower budget, so there’s a good chance that it will be more profitable than Charlie, but I’m anticipating that Wonka ends up somewhere in the $300–$400 million range.

I do think that Wonka will be the second-highest grossing Roald Dahl film and the second exception to the Roald Dahl curse.  And I just think to myself, if Mary Poppins Returns (a movie truly no-one was asking for) could make $350 million in 2019, then Wonka could do just as much.  And the Willy Wonka property is far more relevant and in-demand than Mary Poppins.  So here it is:

Wonka (2023): Prediction as of December 4, 2022

Worldwide gross: $350 million

Rotten Tomatoes: 84% critics, 68% audience

Trust me, I want this movie to do well.  Peter Ostrum, the original Charlie Bucket, said something absolutely true, that any Wonka project reignites interest in all the other Wonka projects.  So yeah, I’d love to see Wonka do well and there be a huge surge in popularity for the other two movies.

Anyway, thank you so much for reading!  I realize I’ve kinda abandoned my Tumblr in favor of posting more frequently on my Twitter, but I want to begin using my Tumblr for more editorial style posts like this, offering my thoughts on any aspect on the Wonka world in general.

[wonkaworldwide]

Items added to the Internet Archives!

Hello all!

I’ve added several items to the Internet Archives.  These items include the Crew Book, the film’s screenplay, production notes, a Japanese press book, a few picture galleries and more.  Enjoy!

[wonkaworldwide]

Y’all it’s a national holiday ! 🥳

[wonkaworldwide]

the catcf 2005 revolution is coming…

All jokes aside, the fact that it cracks Netflix’s top ten every single time it’s put on there is absolutely astounding to me. A large majority of the population hates this movie with a burning passion. But I think people are rewatching and reanalyzing what is, for many, a childhood staple of Gen Z. Even with the added press of the trial right now, I think people are rethinking what they originally thought of Depp’s performance. Love or hate it, Depp made a bold choice to play Wonka the way he did and made himself utterly unforgettable to anybody who watched the film. And even though I want to protect the legacy of this film, it does make my heart happy to see it gaining so much traction on streaming services. 🖤

[wonkaworldwide]

Self promo + exciting news!

A reminder that I’m on Twitter (@WonkaWorldwide).  I recently got a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory screenplay!  I read it for the first time last night.

I’m scanning it now and I’ll be uploading it to my Twitter as a PDF sometime within the next three or four days.

[wonkaworldwide]

The French production of the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory musical is here and poses a threat to whoever owns the title of the most fuckable version of Willy Wonka. 😬

[wonkaworldwide]

Fight! Fight! Fight! (and exclusive plot details of the Wonka prequel)

Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow Pictures have had a long industrious collaboration.  Since their first joint venture in 1989, they have released films such as The Matrix (and it’s sequels), Mad Max: Fury Road, Joker, and, oh I don’t know off the top of my head—Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  However, after recent events, it looks like their partnership may be coming to an end.  But, as of yesterday February 7th, Village Roadshow is suing WB.  The genesis of the lawsuit was the disastrous release of The Matrix: Resurrections, but Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a point of contention in this new lawsuit.

Here are some excerpts of the complaint filed by Village Roadshow.

Basically, Village Roadshow is alleging that WB did not give them an option to participate in the release of Wonka, even though they co-own the rights to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

WB’s defense was to claim that Wonka is an entirely different story from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and in doing so unveiled some of the details of Wonka:

So the relationship between Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Wonka will be examined in a court of law.  How neat!

[wonkaworldwide]

Wonka’s cue card! (credit to @rose-blight for this one)

[wonkaworldwide]

Dear people of the world: Charlie watch party on 02/01!

2022 is the rare year where February 1st is a Tuesday.  The last time this happened was 2011, and then before that it was 2005 back before the movie even came out.  I happened to be born in a year where February 1st was a Tuesday (I was born at the end of January—days before Tuesday February 1st, so it was always meant to be!)

So I will be doing a watch party for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on Twitter on the first of February!  If we all start watching the movie at 8:00PM (EST), we can watch in sync and I’ll be tweeting out all kinds of fun facts, rarities, trivia, and quotes about the scene playing.  I hope you join me and commemorate the occasion!

https://twitter.com/WonkaWorldwide

[wonkaworldwide]

The plot thickens! Theobald Part 2 and the weirdness of CatCF on Netflix

Some of you may have read my last post regarding the mystery of Theobald Film Productions and their mysterious role in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  I made that post on December 30.  Two days later, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory made it’s return to Netflix.  (By the way, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is back on Netflix, check it out!)

What follows is weird.  So I’m putting on my tinfoil cap to share with you what I’ve found.

Charlie is on Netflix, but I had no real intention of watching it.  I own six copies of the film on DVD and Blu-ray and if I were to watch it I’d likely watch it on Blu-ray.  But earlier today, I was watching Nickflix’s reaction to the movie.  I always like watching people’s first time reactions to movies I like.  But in watching him watch the movie, I noticed something strange... Theobald Film Productions received a credit in the opening credits.

This is... incredibly odd.  I checked the DVD version of the film, Theobald does not have a credit in the opening credits.  I checked the Blu-ray version of the film, which has those deleted scenes edited into the movie.  Same thing, Theobald is absent from the opening credits.  I checked the Chinese Blu-ray I own, same thing.  When the movie aired on Freeform last October, same thing.  And lastly, I checked the version of the movie that is currently on HBO Max.  Same thing.  The version of the film on Netflix is the only version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that I can find where Theobald is given an opening credit.

So, this is weird.  It adds more to the mystery of what exactly Theobald is and why, 17 years after Charlie’s release (and less than a year after Theobald’s apparent dissolution), it has it’s name inserted into the opening credits.

But then I had a thought, and this is possibly just wishful thinking.  For Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory’s 4K release back in June, it had the Paramount logo inserted into the beginning.  And as I was skipping through the version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on Netflix, I don’t know if I was just going crazy and seeing it, but it looked better than I remembered.  What if Warner Bros. upgraded Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for a 4K release later this year, and the version they’ve given Netflix is some 1080p version of that 4K scan?  And since they were updating the film and had access to the editing of the film, they put Theobald in the opening credits (for some reason).  There is precedent for 4K or upgraded versions of movies going to streaming platforms before physical media.

Now this might just be me wishful thinking because I would love to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory come to 4K.  And the version on Netflix didn’t look TOO much better than the other versions available.  But I’m confused by all of this, and it is one major coincidence that five days after my Theobald post, this version comes to life (although I probably would never have looked out for it before).

So, I do have some questions for anybody who watches Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on Netflix: do you think it looks better than usual or does it look pretty much the same?  Are there any other changes made?  Are you familiar with a cut of the film where Theobald has a credit in the opening sequence?

[wonkaworldwide]

What the heck is Theobald Film Productions?

Fans of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory may have seen Theobald Film Productions appear during the end credits.  It is listed as one of Charlie’s four production companies, alongside Village Roadshow, Plan B, and the Zanuck Company.  It’s interesting, because during the credits, it clearly doesn’t have a logo and just uses the font from the opening credits.

For some reason, I had the sudden urge to google Theobald Film Productions.  I knew that Village Roadshow was a big deal, and the Zanuck Company was obviously run by Executive Producer Richard Zanuck, and Plan B was oddly founded by Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston.  But I had no idea who in the Charlie crew was involved with Theobald, so I searched, and Charlie was the only movie ever made by Theobald.

I really couldn’t find any individual associated with Theobald.  I was able to find some publicly-available documents pertaining to Theobald’s filing history.  Apparently Theobald was incorporated on June 16, 2004, which was five days before Charlie started filming.  That's odd, but what’s even more odd was that despite Charlie being the only production from Theobald, it remained in operation until September 2021.

Perhaps any of my followers who can read legalese or knows the ropes of film productions could tell me what exactly Theobald was and if all this is common in the film industry.

[wonkaworldwide]

A rare picture of Julia Winter AND a shameless plug for my Twitter (@WonkaWorldwide, if you’re not already following)

[wonkaworldwide]

Chocolat (2001) dir. Lasse Hallström

[wonkaworldwide]

Just a kid at heart

I was going through some images and found this.

It turns out Grandpa Joe had a rarely seen character poster just like the rest of the cast!  The quilt border is very appropriate.  Enjoy this super rare tidbit!

[wonkaworldwide]

Some of my favorite Letterboxd reviews of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

[wonkaworldwide]

Where Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was filmed at Pinewood!

[wonkaworldwide]

I have acquired a Willy Wonka joke book...

I own a Willy Wonka joke book, or it’s proper title, The Whipple-Scrumptious Joke Book.  I’ve had it for a couple years and have flipped through it and groaned at the low quality of the jokes (as is typical of one of these joke books).

It’s been on my mind the last few days because... I’ve been wondering if the book uses the pun Silly Wonka.  I know this is such a weird thing to be wondering, but perhaps because I think that’s probably the lowest a joke about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory could go, and I think to myself surely they wouldn’t conceive a joke where “Silly Wonka” is the punchline.

What are your predictions?  Does this book feature the pun “Silly Wonka”?  Or did I just waste ten minutes of my time and yours?  I will update this post with the answer.

UPDATE!

So, there is no “Silly Wonka” pun in the book, thankfully.  However, there are some jokes in here that are even worse.  Take a look.

Which golden ticket winner likes potato chips? Veruca Salt ‘n’ Vinegar.

What time do the chocolate factory gates open? Ten o’choc.

What are stored in chocolate factories? Chocolate facts.

What do you call a talk show host for Oompa Loompas? Oompa Winfrey.

What is Willy Wonka’s walking stick made of? Cane sugar.

What do Oompa Loompas shout when they hit peanut brittle with a sledgehammer? “Smashing!” (This one doesn’t even make any sense!)

What great sporting event takes place at Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory every four years? The Oompa-lympics.

I don’t know what this whole post was either.