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# ‘Wonka’ wins the weekend, but is it the treat Warner Bros. had hoped for?
- URL: https://www.theomnicosm.com/the-box-office-report-wonka-wins/
- Published: 2023-12-18T12:01:09.000Z
- Updated: 2024-02-02T18:19:44.000Z
- Description: Timothée Chalamet danced his way to the top of the box office.
- Author: Bill Kuchman
- Tags: Popculturology • The Box Office Report, Popculturology, Wonka, Timothee Chalamet

Hello! Welcome to **The** **Box Office Report** for the weekend of Dec. 15-17, 2023\. 

### Programming note

**The Box Office Report** will be off until Jan. 8, 2024.The weekly **Popculturology** newsletter will hit your inboxes this Friday and then be off next until Jan. 5\. I hope you all have (and are having) a great holiday season.

## 1\. Wonka

**Weekend gross:* $39M* 
**Total domestic gross:* $39M* 
**Last weekend:* New release* 
**Percent drop:* NA*

I’d imagine Warner Bros. had envisioned **Timothée Chalamet**’s *Wonka* as a bigger blockbuster than its $39 million debut. **Johnny Depp** and **Tim Burton**’s *Charlie and the Chocolate Factory* opened with $56.2 million in 2005.

Weirdly, director **Paul King** doesn’t have a track record of big opening weekends. Based on the universal love for his *Paddington* movies, you’d think that those films had cleaned up at the box office. Nope. The original *Paddington* opened with $19 million on its way to a $76.2 million domestic haul. *Paddington 2* opened with $11 million on its way to a $40.9 million domestic haul.

****Popculturology** is a free newsletter fueled by my love of pop culture. If you already are a subscriber, ****please consider becoming a supporter** by [upgrading your account](https://www.theomnicosm.com/#/portal/).

## 2\. The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes

**Weekend gross:* $5.8M* 
**Total domestic gross:* $145.2M* 
**Last weekend:* 2nd* 
**Percent drop:* 38*

The *Hunger Games* prequel has some impressive staying power. Now in its fifth weekend in theaters, *The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes* finished in second place again, adding another $5.8 million to its domestic haul.

The prequel still lags way behind the previous records for *Hunger Games* movies, with its $145.2 million domestic gross way behind *The Hugner Games: Mockingjay — Part 2*’s $281.7 million domestic gross.

## 3\. The Boy and the Heron

**Weekend gross:* $5.2M* 
**Total domestic gross:* $23.1M* 
**Last weekend:* 1st* 
**Percent drop:* 60*

[After making history at No. 1 last weekend](https://www.theomnicosm.com/p/the-box-office-report-the-boy-and), *The Boy and the Heron* tumbled 60 percent this weekend to finish at No. 3.

♥️

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## 4\. Godzilla Minus One

**Weekend gross:* $4.9M* 
**Total domestic gross:* $34.3M* 
**Last weekend:* 3rd* 
**Percent drop:* 43*

Love seeing *Godzilla Minus One* still in the top five. While its $34.3 million domestic gross isn’t anything huge, people are still seeing and talking about Minus One.

wrote about *Godzilla Minus One* in the latest edition of his newsletter, highlighting how important it was for the film to reset Godzilla back to his original “terrible majesty.”

> When Godzilla rampages in *Godzilla Minus One*, it’s not exhilarating. When he powered up his atomic breath, I wasn’t excited that he was about to go off like I was in 2014’s *Godzilla*. I was scared. The way Yamazaki shoots the movie and what he does on a relatively limited budget (especially compared to the recent Legendary efforts) is astounding because he conveys not only the size of the beast, but his threat.

[Give Goldberg’s piece on ](https://mattgoldberg.substack.com/p/godzilla-minus-one-restores-the-kings)[*Godzilla Minus One*](https://mattgoldberg.substack.com/p/godzilla-minus-one-restores-the-kings)[ a read here.](https://mattgoldberg.substack.com/p/godzilla-minus-one-restores-the-kings)

## 5\. Trolls Band Together

**Weekend gross:* $4M* 
**Total domestic gross:* $88.7M* 
**Last weekend:* 4th* 
**Percent drop:* 34*

Part of me wants to say that *Trolls Band Together* has stuck around for five weekends due to it being the only family friendly film in the mix, but how would that explain *Wish*? Disney’s latest animated film came out a week after *Trolls Band Together* but has already disappeared from the top five.

*Box office numbers via* [*The Numbers*](http://www.the-numbers.com/?ref=theomnicosm.com) *based on Sunday estimates.*

That’s the end of this edition of ****Popculturology**. Thanks for reading the newsletter. If you already are a subscriber, ****please consider becoming a supporter** by [upgrading your account](https://www.theomnicosm.com/#/portal/).