‘Wonder Park’ at the Box Office [Continuous Updates]

Update (3/20) - From Deadline:

Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon’s Wonder Park opened in its first 19 offshore markets this session, taking in $4.3M. This is just 13% of the international footprint on the long-gestating and critically-hammered animated pic. Family-friendly Brazil was the best debut at $1.7M from 437 sites which was good for 2nd place. Indonesia was also a No. 2 start with $276K from 200 locations. Rollout continues through the rest of the month and into April, playing into Easter break in Mexico, Spain and the UK.

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Wonder Park is currently number 2 at the U.S. Box Office!

Update (3/19) - From Deadline:

"Paramount’s [...] animated feature Wonder Park opened to $16M and though better than the $10M-$14M it was expected to do, isn’t enough to consider this under-$100M production a success. A $20M-plus opening would have been a better optic (some rivals were estimating on Friday that Wonder Park might actually get there). The movie has been challenged to reach the big screen since its production start five years ago. It’s a younger-skewing pic, with kids under 9 repping 53% of the under-12 crowd. Kids give the pic 4 stars and the under 18 set an A, but it’s the parents that have to sit through this and they’re not impressed with a 3 1/2 stars on PostTrak. Famlies repped 62%. CinemaScore is B+. Ironically the title isn’t uttered in the movie; they call it ‘Wonderland’. Disney’s Dumbo will soon be here on March 28 to shut Wonder Park down.

Diversity breakdown for Wonder Park was 52% Caucasian, 20% Hispanic, 17% Asian/Other, and 11% African-American. Wonder Park played best in the Mid & South-West with Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, San Antonio, Toronto, Kansas City leading the way.

While Wonder Park has been without a director since Jan. 2018, when Dylan Brown was fired for inappropriate and unwanted conduct, the pic’s problems were apparent well before Paramount animation changed its leadership ranks (Bob Bacon exited in August 2015; DreamWorks Animation’s Mireille Soria arrived in July 2017), and there’s only so many fixes that can be done on an animation film in its latter phases of production. Word is that the mother originally died in the film, and that was considered too severe. If the story is complete, the animation and character design are already on a runway, and to go back in and fix would have cost the studio millions. In such cases, there’s some tweaks that can be done with dialogue or small animation sequences to make up for missing logic. One rival animation insider told us 'The campaign isn’t horrible. It just seems that all the good parts of the movie are in the trailer.'"

Please note than any opinion expressed in the above quotes are of Deadline, and not of NickALive!.

Previous updates:

[...] Wonder Park is seeing $5.3M Friday, with its projected weekend down from the $20M-plus we were seeing yesterday, with $16.7M in No. 2, a noble start for the under-$100M production, which has been challenged to reach the big screen since its production start five years ago. It’s a younger-skewing pic, with kids under 9 repping 53% of the under-12 crowd. Kids give the pic 4 stars, while parents are less enthused at 3 1/2. It’s a better start then expected; this film was expected to die between $10M-$14M. However, $20M-plus for this production would be a better optic. CinemaScore is B+. Maybe matinees push Wonder Park (a title that’s not even uttered in the movie; they call it ‘Wonderland’) to $20M. But no one sees it that way at this point in the AM.

Diversity breakdown for Wonder Park was 53% Caucasian, 20% Hispanic, 17% Asian/Other, and 10% African-American. Wonder Park played best in the Mid & South-West with Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, San Antonio, Toronto, Kansas City leading the way.

While Wonder Park has been without a director since Jan. 2018, when Dylan Brown was fired for inappropriate and unwanted conduct, the pic’s problems were apparent well before Paramount animation changed its leadership ranks (Bob Bacon exited in August 2015; DreamWorks Animation’s Mireille Soria arrived in July 2017), and there’s only so many fixes that can be done on an animation film in its latter phases of production. Word is that the mother originally died in the film, and that was considered too severe. If the story is complete, the animation and character design are already on a runway, and to go back in and fix would have cost the studio millions. In such cases, there’s some tweaks that can be done with dialogue or small animation sequences to make up for missing logic. One rival animation insider told us “The campaign isn’t horrible. It just seems that all the good parts of the movie are in the trailer.”

Original post:

Wonder Park, an animated family film from Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon Movies, earned $700,000 (USD) in its Thursday (March 14, 2019) box office previews from 2,620 screens. The pic opens on approximately 3,838 screens this weekend and is expected to do between $10M-$14M. The film is also rolling out worldwide over the coming weeks.

Paramount is looking at an opening weekend between $10-$14 million for the children’s fantasy tale, but it will be contending with Marvel's new superhero film Captain Marvel. Wonder Park is tracking similarly to Paramount’s Sherlock Gnomes, which opened in March last year to $10.6 million on a $59 million budget.

Wonder Park tells the story of a magnificent amusement park where the imagination of a wildly creative girl named June comes alive. One magical day, June is running through the woods to find her way home where she discovers an old rollercoaster car and climbs inside. She suddenly finds herself in Wonderland, an amusement park she had created in her mind and put aside. All of her rides and characters are brought to life but are falling into disarray without her. Now, with the help of her fun and lovable park characters, June will have to put the wonder back in Wonderland before it is lost forever.

The flick cost an estimated $100M net to produce and has been in the works since 2014, when the late Brad Grey was in charge of the lot. Previews kicked off on Thursday, March 14, 2019.

The star-studded voice cast of Wonder Park includes Matthew Broderick (Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Rules Don’t Apply, The Producers) as Dad, Jennifer Garner (Nine Lives, The Tribes of Palos Verdes) as Mom, Kenan Thompson (All That, Kenan & Kel, Good Burger, SNL) as Gus, Ken Jeong (Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness, Bob’s Burgers) as Cooper, Mila Kunis (Family Guy, A Bad Moms Christmas) as Greta, John Oliver (The Daily Show, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, live-action Lion King) as Steve, Ken Hudson Campbell, who voices Boomer the Bear, Sofia Mali as Young June, Brianna Denski (Momsters: When Moms Go Bad) as June, Oev Michael Urbas as Banky, Norbert Leo Butz (Bloodline) as Peanut, Kate McGregor-Stewart as Aunt Albertine, Kevin Chamberlin as Uncle Tony, Kath Soucie (Rugrats, Hey Arnold!) as Bus Counselor Shannon, and Noen Perez as Chatty Kid.



The PG-rated film is written by Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows) from a story by Applebaum (Origin), Nemec (Knightfall), and Robert Gordon (Galaxy Quest). Appelbaum, Nemec, and Kendra Haaland serve as producers, with Karen Rosenfelt and Don Hahn executive producing. The movie is being produced by Paramount Animation, Nickelodeon Movies and Ilion Animation Studios. A director has yet to be announced for the movie.

Also opening this weekend are Five Feet Apart from Lionsgate, starring Haley Lu Richardson and Cole Sprouse, and Captive State from director Rupert Wyatt via Focus Features.

Wonder Park is scheduled to roll into theaters on Friday, March 15, 2019. An animated television series based on the film will also debut on Nickelodeon in 2019.

Funrise, Inc. will serve as the worldwide master toy partner for the franchise.

Look out for Wonder Park merchandise!

Follow the movie online:

US:
Web: WonderParkMovie.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WonderParkMovie
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WonderParkMovie
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/WonderParkMovie/

More Nick: Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon Movies' 'Wonder Park' Characters Star in New PSA to Inspire Girls to Pursue Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM)!

Previous title: Nickelodeon & Paramount's ‘Wonder Park’ Rides to $700,000 at Thursday, March 14's Box Office

Sources: TheWrap, Deadline; Additional source: Cartoon Brew; Additional source: RB Casting.

Originally published: Friday, March 15, 2019.

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