Cinema chain owners are reportedly nervous about how Aquaman 2 will fare this Christmas. But might Wonka be the film that’ll clean up this December?
In the world according to Variety, cinema owners are looking at the late 2023 schedules and growing nervous. Where previous years – the pandemic-struck 2020 excluded – have had at least one major tentpole that could be banked on to make lots of money, this year’s line-up is comparatively threadbare.
The flashpoint for all this nervousness, seemingly, is Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom. Ordinarily, a superhero film like this – certainly one that also happens to be a sequel to a movie that made over a billion in 2018 – should be regarded as a sure-fire hit. But this is the topsy-turvy year of 2023, in which cape-based movies like The Marvels and Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania have all struggled. Aquaman studio Warner has also had a difficult time in this regard, with The Flash, Shazam! Fury Of The Gods and Blue Beetle all performing below expectations.
Given that all of these movies have under-performed, while the likes of Barbie, Oppenheimer and Taylor Swift’s gig flick have all soared, has thrown what was once the natural order completely out of whack. As we looked at the other week, Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom’s success or failure will likely rest on how it’s received in the first few days of release. The movie has had a widely-reported nightmare of a production. Director James Wan has since downplayed stories of protracted reshoots, but still: nobody can say for sure exactly how it will turn out.
“The holiday season is on the shoulders of Aquaman, and that’s not a good shoulder to put anything on,” analyst Jeff Bock told Variety. “Can it cut through the negative DC noise?”
One film that is mentioned in Variety’s report, meanwhile – though oddly, not given all that much space – is Wonka.
Like Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom, it’s out in December (the 8th to be precise, ahead of Aquaman 2, which lands on the 22nd). And, as Variety notes, it will land in a month without a huge amount of competition to distract from it, unless you count Beyonce’s Renaissance concert movie, which is out a few days earlier on 1st December.
What’s noteworthy about Wonka, though, is that it has a considerable pedigree behind it, and precisely none of the baggage weighing down Warner’s Aquaman sequel.
Lest we forget, Wonka’s directed by Paul King, who co-wrote the screenplay with Simon Farnaby. That’s the very same duo that brought us Paddington 2, a film so beloved by audiences and critics that it famously became one of the few films to get a flawless 100 percent positive aggregate score on Rotten Tomatoes in the months surrounding its release. It’s since dropped to 99 percent, which means it’s now only as highly-regarded as the all-time classic, Citizen Kane.
The universal affection for Paddington 2 is such that it even got a prominent mention in the none-more-meta action comedy, The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent. If you haven’t seen the scene in question, we’ve included the clip below for ease of reference. It’s lovely, incidentally.
Wonka also has a cast that would likely be described by younger, cooler people than me as ‘stacked’.
Timothée Chalamet plays the young Willy Wonka, depicted here as a raffish 20-something still pursuing a dream of starting up his own chocolate factory. He’s joined by the likes of Hugh Grant, Keegan-Michael Key, Matt Lucas, Sally Hawkins and too many other familiar names to list. None (Chalamet aside) are true Hollywood A-listers, granted, but they’re an immediately-recognisable, talented bunch – including at least a couple of BAFTA winners.
Pedigree aside, Wonka also offers something a little different from the action-oriented sights and sounds of a superhero movie. It’s the kind of family-friendly confection that’s perfect for the Christmas holidays, and also has the advantage of being comparatively short (certainly compared to the 192 minute-long Avatar: The Way Of Water, which was December 2022’s big film).
Then there’s its connection to Roald Dahl’s much-loved children’s book, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, and its 1971 film adaptation, Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory, with Wonka clearly positioned as a prequel to the latter.
Put all of this together, and we have what could be described as this winter’s cinematic dark horse. It’s too early to say yet how critics and audiences will react to Wonka, of course – though the reactions on social media seem highly positive so far – and this year has proven that exactly what constitutes a sure-fire hit isn’t remotely obvious these days.
But if cinema owners are nervous about Aquaman 2’s prospects this Christmas, it’s just possible that a whimsical chocolatier is about to come to rescue the box office.
Read more: The Marvels | Has streaming killed three-star movies?
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