Sandworms emerge on the desert planet Arrakis in Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Half Two.”
Warner Bros. | Legendary Leisure
After a two-month drought, “Dune: Half Two” has delivered a much-welcomed deluge of ticket gross sales to the home field workplace — and its success might convey a 3rd franchise movie to cinemas.
The Warner Bros. and Legendary Leisure movie opened with an estimated $81.5 million on the field workplace, the best of any movie launched up to now in 2024.
“Like an oasis within the desert, ‘Dune: Half Two’ is a sight for sore eyes throughout theatrical exhibition and all of Hollywood,” stated Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at BoxOffice.com.
Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi epic, the second within the Dune franchise, was buoyed by IMAX ticket gross sales, which represented round 23% of home ticket gross sales, or $18.5 million.
“The one motive it wasn’t larger is we ran out of seats,” stated Wealthy Gelfond, CEO of IMAX.
Gelfond famous that presales of the movie have been “actually spectacular” and that in lots of places, tickets for IMAX screenings aren’t out there till three weeks out.
“The lesson is that when you take an attractive visible expertise, a superb story and you set it within the fingers of a superb filmmaker with an IMAX digicam, you are going to get superb outcomes,” Gelfond stated.
Notably, everything of “Dune: Half Two” was filmed utilizing IMAX digital cameras.
Expectations from studio executives, theater house owners and field workplace analysts are that the movie could have an extended tail in cinemas and proceed to gather robust ticket gross sales within the weeks to come back. Comparable, Gelfond stated, to Common’s “Oppenheimer” and Disney’s “Avatar: The Method Of Water.”
Internationally, the movie is anticipated to tally $97 million, bringing its international haul to $178.5 million. IMAX represented 18% of all worldwide ticket gross sales, the corporate stated. The movie will debut in China on March 8.
“I believe it is a film the place you understand the phrase of mouth goes to hold it,” Josh Grode, CEO of Legendary Leisure advised CNBC. “It’s a stupendous piece of filmmaking. There is not any different method to say it. I’ve nearly run out of adjectives.”
Grode did not dismiss rumors of a possible third movie within the franchise, noting that, “We have now to have all inventive stakeholders aligned and help the imaginative and prescient.”
“I believe everyone could be very excited and actually having fun with this second and if Denis [Villeneuve] will get the script proper and he feels that he can ship one other expertise on par with what we have simply accomplished then I do not see why not,” he stated.
Timothee Chalamet stars as Paul Atreides in Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Half Two.”
Warner Bros. | Legendary Leisure
The robust opening for “Dune: Half Two” comes after the movie was faraway from the 2023 film calendar as a result of twin Hollywood labor strikes made it unattainable for solid members to advertise the movie publicly.
Grode famous that Legendary Leisure struggled with the choice to maneuver the movie out of its November slot and to a brand new date in March. Nevertheless, he felt that with no advertising and marketing marketing campaign “that matched the film” the movie may not attain as many moviegoers.
“Hindsight is all the time 2020, however I believe it might be completely the best determination,” he stated.
The movie’s solid has been closely selling the movie for weeks, taking part in junkets, video interviews and showing on late-night exhibits. Even the celebs’ premiere outfits have been making headlines, driving extra consciousness of the movie’s launch.
Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya attend the World Premiere of “Dune: Half Two” in Leicester Sq. in London, England, on Feb. 15, 2024.
Gareth Cattermole | Getty Pictures Leisure | Getty Pictures
Alongside business veterans equivalent to Christopher Walken, Stellan Skarsgard, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin and Dave Bautista, “Dune: Half Two” options 4 of the most important younger stars in Hollywood: Zendaya, Timothée Chalamet, Florence Pugh and Austin Butler.
Heading into the weekend, the home field workplace had tallied lower than $900 million in ticket gross sales by means of the primary two months of the yr, a virtually 18% drop from the identical interval in 2023, in line with Comscore knowledge. A lift originally of the yr might show important to a field workplace that is nonetheless struggling to reclaim $10 billion in home annual ticket gross sales, a mark final seen earlier than the Covid-19 pandemic.
“In any given field workplace yr there’s a turning level and in 2024 the ‘Dune: Half Two’ debut represents a milestone in a yr bereft of blockbuster-sized choices,” stated Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “The field workplace yr of ’24 formally kicked off this weekend two months late and never a second too quickly and can assist construct the much-needed momentum for March and past for film theaters.”
Disclosure: Comcast is the guardian firm of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal distributed “Oppenheimer.”
