‘Dune: Part Two’ spices up a quiet movie weekend
It happened as it was written: “Dune: Part Two,” expected to spice up the box office, has done so.
The sequel and its A-list cast jump-started moviegoing in North America after a dismal start to the year.
The film sold an estimated $81.5 million in tickets in the United States and Canada from Thursday night to Sunday, the biggest opening for a Hollywood film since “Barbie” in July. (Taylor Swift’s concert documentary arrived to $93 million in October.) “Dune: Part Two,” directed by Denis Villeneuve, collected an additional $97 million overseas. IMAX screenings were especially strong.
The movie had originally been scheduled for November, but Legendary pushed back the release date because of the actors’ strike: Without the buzzy young cast promoting the movie — Zendaya’s bottom-baring robot suit at the London premiere arrived on the internet as a sonic boom — Legendary feared that “Part Two” would not turn out audiences in big enough numbers to warrant the high budget. Sci-fi fans were likely to come one way or another. But Legendary also needed to sell the film’s more delicate story — a boy becoming a man, a guy falling in love — which would be more difficult without cast interviews.
“It was a tough decision because I knew moving the movie out of the fall was going to cause a lot of pain for exhibition,” said Josh Grode, Legendary’s CEO, using Hollywood jargon for theaters. “But when you have a cast like this one, you use it.”
“We’re really, really happy,” Grode added.
Ticket sales in North America had been down 20% this year compared with the same period last year. “Dune: Part Two” narrowed the decline to 13%.
“This is truly one of most magnificent cinematic achievements of all time. Filled with breathtaking images, stunning action and a story that transcends the science fiction genre,” wrote Rick Romancito for Taos News.
The multilayered film has shown to be something of a pop culture event so far. Screenings across the country are packed from sunup to sundown. A popcorn bucket tied to the film has gone viral. And, amid opening weekend, social media timelines and news feeds were packed with speculation, commentary, memes and theories about the movie.
All signs point toward a third Dune movie being made, which will probably adapt Herbert’s novel “Dune Messiah,” the follow-up to the original book.
Villeneuve has teased finishing the story with a third movie, though he has also suggested that it might be a while before he wraps up the tale. A report from the tech news site Polygon estimated that a rumored third film might not hit theaters until closer to 2030.
“Less an act of literary fidelity than generosity, (Villeneuve’s) sequel plunges us into the book’s messianic prophecies, but also into spiritual uncertainty, cultural conflict and doubt, as it must,” Los Angeles Times film editor Joshua Rothkopf writes in his review.
“Villeneuve has made good on one of the great Hollywood gambles in recent memory, delivering a two-part epic of literary nuance, timely significance and maybe even the promise of another film or two.
“It really captured the marketplace,” said Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros. president of domestic distribution. “It’s a cultural moment globally.”
“Denis Villeneuve is up there with Christopher Nolan as a filmmaker whose name alone inspires people to go to the movie theater,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore.
This past weekend, he added, “moves the needle in a big way.”
Going into the weekend the box office was down about 20% from the same point last year (when “Avatar: The Way of Water,” a 2022 release, was lifting everything). The closest equivalent this year is “Wonka,” still a hit, but not as big as “Avatar 2.” After the “Dune” weekend, the deficit will be closer to 13%.
“It shows how important one movie can be to the overall health of the industry,” Dergarabedian said. “But this is not a one-hit wonder for March. It’s a momentum business. Now we’re going to get the wind back in the sails as we head farther into March, April and the summer movie season.”
Warner Bros. is one of those studios that will be back in short order with another big film, in “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” at the end of March, followed by “Furiosa” in May, the “Beetlejuice” sequel in September and the “Joker” sequel in October.
“This is our year,” Goldstein said. “Exhibitors are fighting for their lives but we can be clever and collaborative with them to keep our business relevant to audiences.”
Second place for the weekend went to “Bob Marley: One Love” (Paramount), with about $7.4 million in ticket sales, lifting its three-week domestic total to $82.8 million. The faith-based drama “Ordinary Angels” (Lionsgate) collected $3.9 million, for a two-week total of $12.6 million.
Opening this weekend are Lionsgate’s “Imaginary,” Universal’s “Kung Fu Panda 4” and Angel Studios’ “Cabrini.”