‘Wonka’ Earns Fourth No. 1 Weekend With $15 Million at Box Office

January 6, 2024 @ 8:39 AM

As the 2024 box office kicks off with what is expected to be a slow start, Warner Bros.’ “Wonka” is topping Universal/Blumhouse’s new release “Night Swim” for its fourth No. 1 weekend.

The Timothee Chalamet musical earned $4.3 million on Friday and is estimated to earn $15 million this weekend to bring its domestic total to $165 million, more than quadruple its $39 million opening weekend. In a sign of how rough it has been for movie theaters since the end of last summer, “Wonka” is now the first movie to pass $400 million in global grosses since “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” did so back in early August.

“Night Swim” earned $5.2 million from 3,250 theaters on its opening day and is estimated to earn an opening weekend of $12.5 million. The horror film about a haunted swimming pool marks the completed merger between Blumhouse and James Wan’s Atomic Monster production company.

“Night Swim” won’t replicate the success Blumhouse earned with “M3GAN” last January as it is earning less than half of that film’s $30 million opening weekend and is not being received well with a C on CinemaScore and a 27% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes. However, the film will make back its money as it carries a thrifty $15 million budget and will be the only horror film on offer in theaters until March.

Universal’s holiday Illumination release “Migration” is in third with $10.5 million, bringing its total to $78 million after three weekends. The original animated film won’t get anywhere near the global total of last winter’s “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” due to weak performance overseas, but domestically is legging out well and should be a mild theatrical success against its reported $72 million budget.

“Migration” is in a close race for the No. 3 spot with Warner Bros./DC’s “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” and Sony’s “Anyone But You,” which industry estimates also have making just over $10 million this weekend. “Aquaman 2” will cross $100 million in domestic grosses on Monday after passing $300 million worldwide. That’s enough to make it the highest grossing DC film of 2023, though it is still earning less than half of the $1.15 billion of the first “Aquaman”

“Anyone But You” is finding traction with female moviegoers and is legging out superbly, as its industry estimated $10.2 million third weekend is a 17% increase from its previous weekend. Sporting a $25 million budget, the Sydney Sweeney/Glen Powell romcom is heading for a running domestic total of $44.5 million after three weekends.