Bringing Willy Wonka to Life

Everyone’s heard of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, right? Many of us have dreamed of visiting such a place where almost everything is edible and delicious. But what if the chocolate factory came to life? how much exactly would that world cost? How much would the Wonka company be worth? How much would the Oompa Loompas get paid? We dissected every element of Mr. Dahl’s story to calculate the costs of bringing his world of pure imagination to life today. Here’s how it played out:

From our estimates, it would cost Mr. Wonka over $32 million to keep his chocolate river, and that’s only one piece of the factory! Some of Wonka’s other luxuries like the lickable wallpaper (about $2,600 to cover 653 square feet of hallway) and a golden goose egg (about $6,032 each) are less expensive but still add up. The most luxurious and expensive item in Wonka’s factory would be his flying glass elevator, which we estimate would cost about $109 million when you combine the costs of an average elevator and a low-end market rocket.

In total, it looks like Mr. Wonka and co. are looking at a grand total of $224.6 million to keep the factory running each year. For the rest of the calculations, check out the magical infographic below!