Timothée Chalamet's 'Wonka' Starts Strong at Box Office, But Trails Depp

Timothée Chalamet is on his way to #1 at the box office this weekend with his new "Wonka" movie -- and while the figures so far are impressive ... Johnny Depp still reigns supreme.

The first-day numbers are in for Timmy's latest flick, and like we said ... they're quite solid heading into the weekend and promise to see him and WB raking in somewhere between $35-$40 million domestically by the time Sunday rolls around.

Between Thursday previews and Friday's full day of showings, "Wonka" has earned about $14.4 million thus far -- which, again, puts the family-friendly film well ahead of the competition. Frankly, there isn't much standing in its way -- just a bunch of indie films and leftovers from weeks prior ... so Tim has a relatively clear path to dominate ticket sales.

Of course, some wanted to see how he'd fare compared to the old 'Wonka' movies -- specifically, against JD's version from back in the 2000s, the most recent iteration.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, TC's numbers (real/projected) don't hold a candle to Johnny and Tim Burton -- '05's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" made quite a bit more money at the time ... both in its first official day as well as what it earned in its opening weekend domestically.

First-day numbers for JD's movie were about $20 mil at the time, and through the weekend ... about $56 mil. Through its entire theatrical run, 'CATCF' hauled in more than $206 mil.

In other words, Johnny's Wonka is still king in terms of cold hard cash -- and even critically ... it held its own in the reviews. Same goes for Timothee BTW ... his latest "Wonka" flick has a respectable 84% on Rotten Tomatoes, similar to JD's 83% for his 2005 offering.

Now, there is context for why Tim's box office numbers might not be as strong in 2023 -- fact is, people just aren't going to the movies the way they used to ... so all things considered, the "Wonka" haul is actually pretty damn good in the modern era, especially in this economy.

Oh, and if you're wondering where the OG Gene Wilder fits into this whole box office juxtaposition -- his 1971 version didn't do all that great at the box office at the time. It only made about $4 million domestically through its whole run ($22 mil adjusted for inflation).