"Wonka" had quite a sweet and velvet opening weekend as it topped the box-office records with an impressive number.
The film has been widely praised by critics primarily because of Timothée Chalamet's convincing performance of the kooky chocolatier, Willy Wonka.
'Wonka' Opening Weekend Sales
According to The Hollywood Reporter, "Wonka" yielded a huge number of opening weekend sales at the box office in its first week.
In domestic showcases, "Wonka" opened to $39 million. Worldwide, the movie raked in more than $53 million in over 77 overseas screenings including early shows in England, and Australia.
All in all - the movie's combined receipts yielded $151.4 million in its domestic and international opening weekend, coming from a budget of only $125 million.
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'Wonka' Reviews From Critics
According to The Guardian, the film was an "absolute Christmas treat," describing it as " spectacular, imaginative, sweet-natured and funny." For Chalameet's performance, the publication even admitted that they had enjoyed his portrayal more compared to Wilder and Johnny Depp's performances.
"At this point it is hard to call Timothée Chalamet a revelation as he keeps turning in one wildly different performance after another, and now he proves you can add singing and dancing to the list. But he does both with unmistakable charm and seeming ease," Deadline said in their rave review.
"Chalamet carries the thrust of the film (and Wilder's legacy) admirably on his slight shoulders. He's a warm and winning Wonka, infusing the character with a fanciful sense of humour and a guileless enthusiasm. Every so often, he dips into madness, a wink toward Wilder's more unpredictable chocolatier, but he also makes the character wholly his own," Entertainment Weekly said in their review.
Rolling Stone, however, had quite a critical review of Chalemet's performance.
"You're thankful that King injects a sense of kindness, a kookiness, and the care to make this something besides leftover Dahl parts. Yet you wish that Chalamet was bringing something, anything, to what too often feels like character karaoke. He's not bad, just blank. Which is enough to make you feel like Wonka is over long before it's actually over. Let's just say the gobstopping is anything but everlasting here," they said.
Time Magazine also echoed the same thing, saying "Wonka is carefully calibrated to bring joy. But do we want our joy to be something capable of being manipulated with buttons and knobs, with grand but somehow flat-looking sets..We already know they're important; we want to feel their pulse. And Wonka gives us everything but that quiet, thrumming sensation."
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