‘Wonka’ wins last 2023 box office weekend, ‘Color Purple’ posts strong opening day

After a strong Christmas Day performance by Warner Bros. Pictures’ “The Color Purple,” the studio’s chocolatier-centered musical “Wonka” topped the final weekend box office of 2023 with a modest $23.9 million domestic haul, according to estimates from measurement firm Comscore. Final 2023 numbers, meanwhile, signaled that a turbulent year dominated by Hollywood strikes ultimately belonged to Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and, of course, “Barbenheimer” — while a glut of preexisting IP yielded mixed results.

This weekend, “Wonka” proved too sweet to miss as it bested “Color Purple” and a third Warner Bros. holiday release —”Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” — to bring its North American cumulative to $134.6 million in its third week. “Aquaman,” the Jason Momoa-led superhero flick, swam to a second-place finish by bringing in $19.5 million in its sophomore outing for a North American total of $77.8 million.

“The Color Purple” — the musical drama adaptation of Alice Walker’s 1982 novel of the same name — came in fourth place at the domestic weekend box office, bringing in $13 million for a North American haul of $45.3 million. The film did, however, earn $18 million on its opening day, the second-best Christmas Day premiere behind only Warner Bros.’ movie “Sherlock Holmes,” which brought in $24.6 million on Dec. 25, 2009.

The 1985 Steven Spielberg-directed version of “The Color Purple,” which starred Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover and Oprah Winfrey, opened to $1.7 million in late December 1985. The Oscar-nominated film had a per-screen average of nearly $9,000 in its opening weekend and went on to earn $94 million domestically (roughly $264 million adjusting for inflation) in its original theatrical run.

Rounding out the top five at the domestic box office were Universal Pictures’ animated comedy “Migration,” which swooped in ahead of the new “Color Purple,” earning $17.23 million in North America this weekend to finish in third place in its second weekend for a domestic total of $54.32 million since opening Dec. 22; and Sony Pictures’ rom-com “Anyone But You,” which lured in $9 million for a fifth-place finish and a North American cumulative of $25 million since its Dec. 22 premiere.

Despite its falloff, “The Color Purple” proved a strong performer going into awards season. Directed by Ghanaian filmmaker Blitz Bazawule, the film tells the story of the abuse and ascendancy of Celie (Fantasia Barrino), a poor Black woman living in the rural South in the early 1900s. The movie also stars Taraji P. Henson, Colman Domingo, Danielle Brooks, Halle Bailey and H.E.R.

The PG-13 musical scored a solid 86% critic score and an impressive 95% audience score on the review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes. It garnered an A grade from audiences polled by CinemaScore.

“In translating a book to a movie (again) via a stage musical, there are bound to be transformations along the way — it will not be the same, and this “Color Purple” is no exception,” writes Tribune News Service film critic Katie Walsh.

“But what remains the same are the raw emotions, the authenticity of the characters and the enduring power of its message,” Walsh continues. “While it tackles dark material, over the course of its journey, it will make you want to stand up and cheer, again and again.”

These end-of-year releases capped off a slate of 2023 movies that showed tentative signs of post-COVID recovery, bringing in more money at the box office than in any of the last three years. Total sales were up 22% from 2022, but still down 21% from pre-pandemic levels in 2019.

The road to the 2023 domestic box office championship was painted pink as Warner Bros.’ ”Barbie” brought in a North American total of $636 million. The Greta Gerwig film finished well ahead of its closest competitor, Universal Pictures’ ”The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which hauled in $575 million domestically.

Rounding out the year’s top 10 highest-grossing films at the North American box office were Sony Pictures’ ”Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” ($381 million); Disney’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” ($359 million); Universal Pictures’ ”Oppenheimer” ($326 million); Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” ($298 million); Disney’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” ($215 million); Lionsgate’s “John Wick: Chapter 4” ($187 million); Angel Studios’ ”Sound of Freedom” ($184 million); and “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” ($179 million), which was distributed through a deal with AMC Theatres.

Though superhero movies hit big this year, many failed to meet their lofty expectations, with “Shazam! Fury of the Gods,” “The Flash,” “Blue Beetle” and “The Marvels” all posting paltry numbers.

Disney, though landing many films in the top 10, saw some big misses with the animated film “Wish” performing poorly and “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” bombing against its massive production budget. And “The Marvels” became the lowest-grossing film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Projections for the overall box office of 2024 are bleak, with Deadline expecting for there to be a $1 billion drop-off in domestic sales from 2023’s $9 billion total to $8 billion, which calculates to an 11% drop in total sales.

Kicking off the potentially perilous new year in wide release next weekend are Ketchup Entertainment’s “Memory,” Janus Films’ Wim Wenders documentary “Anselm,” Well Go USA Entertainment’s “Noryang: Deadly Sea” and Universal Pictures’ horror flick “Night Swim.”

Times staff writers Christi Carras and J. Clara Chan contributed to this report.