Netflix vs. the Chocolate Factory

Could the real Golden Ticket be a box-office receipt? Netflix has scheduled its animated feature Charlie vs. the Chocolate Factory for a theatrical release ahead of the 2027 holiday season. Starring Taika Waititi as Willy Wonka and Kit Connor as Charlie Paley, the film will open globally in theaters on November 5, 2027, and hit Netflix on December 22. That’s 47 days of exclusivity — the same length of time the streaming service recently announced for this year’s Cannes Film Festival darling La Bola Negra and more than twice what it gave Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein last year.

Pair this with the reports around Greta Gerwig’s Narnia movies, which will be the first Netflix-produced films to release theatrically, and you can see a trend forming. The dominant subscription streaming service is doing everything it can to change its tune on the movie-theater business and what it can do for them. Ted Sarandos has spent months — during his aborted campaign to buy Warner Bros. Discovery and beyond — trying to convince the Hollywood community that he was not actually out to destroy the theatrical business.

This new Willy Wonka movie produced by Netflix Animation Studios and Sony Pictures Imageworks is the latest step in that image-rehab effort, though it’s important to keep in mind that, unlike La Bola Negra, this is a family-friendly animated feature. While Netflix likely aims to position the Spanish-language queer war drama as a contender for Best Picture, its aspirations for Charlie vs. the Chocolate Factory are probably more in line with those of last year’s KPop Demon Hunters, the family-friendly crowd-pleaser that the streamer also sent to theaters for special-event screenings after that film became a global phenomenon. (Remember, on top of becoming 2025’s most streamed movie, Demon Hunters made $24.6 million off those one-off engagements alone.) By contrast, if Chocolate Factory can connect with audiences, it will have nearly seven weeks of runway to rake in box-office dollars worldwide. To borrow from the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory: A theatrical window is a precious thing. It’d be a shame to waste it.

Apart from Waititi and Connor, Charlie vs. the Chocolate Factory stars Nicola Coughlan, Charithra Chandran, Samson Kayo, Christopher Chung, Kate Winslet, and Helena Bonham Carter. Per its official synopsis, the film sees Wonka returning from a prison stint after being convicted of turning a child into a blueberry, and a new generation of so-called rotten kids attempts to break into his factory. Sony Pictures Entertainment is handling distribution in international markets. Between this movie, Timothée Chalamet’s WB-produced Wonka, and Netflix’s forthcoming game show Wonka’s the Golden Ticket, the Wonkaverse is overflowing with confections. Mind the blueberries.