Dune 2 Passes Huge Box Office Milestone (With Plenty Of Spice Left In The Tank)
"Dune: Part Two" continues to be the savior of the box office as director Denis Villeneuve's sci-fi sequel has just passed a major milestone. With a nice start to its fourth week in theaters, the film has now crossed the $500 million mark worldwide. The sequel had already surpassed the first "Dune" globally. Now the question is, just how much can Timothée Chalamet's return as Paul Atreides add to the bottom line? Quite a bit, if all goes well.
Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment's "Dune: Part Two" has now pulled in a grand total of $506.5 million at the global box office, as of Monday. That includes a solid $2.8 domestically on Monday, which was good enough to take the top spot for the day from "Kung Fu Panda 4," which has topped the charts for the past two weekends. So far, the "Dune: Part Two" total includes $207.5 million domestically and $299 million internationally. It doesn't really have any major territories left to open in, but it seems to have a lot of spice left in the tank as it only dropped 38% in its third weekend. Word of mouth for this one is very strong.
The sequel further explores the mythic journey of Paul Atreides, finishing the story of Frank Herbert's classic novel. Paul unites with Chani and the Fremen while on a path of revenge against those who destroyed his family, and is then faced with choosing between the love of his life and the fate of the universe as he seeks to prevent a terrible future only he can see. In addition to Chalamet, the film's impressive ensemble includes Zendaya, Florence Pugh, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Dave Bautista, Josh Brolin, Austin Butler, and Christopher Walken.
Dune is now a wildly successful franchise
Aside from very strong reviews (you can read /Film's official review right here), much of the success can be owed to the response to the first film, as well as the stacked cast that includes both rising and well-tested stars. For a movie based on challenging source material that asks a lot of the audience and was by no means a surefire bet out of the gate, it's hard to imagine things working out better for all involved. This truly feels like a best-case scenario.
Even if the movie didn't make another dime, $500 million worldwide against a $190 million budget is good enough to eventually get the film into profits. More than that, it's also probably going to secure some Oscar nominations next year, which will only make it more of a win for both WB and Legendary. At this point, it's all but assured that the movie will top $600 million worldwide. That means Chalamet will have two $600 million hits to his name in just a few months, as "Wonka" also surpassed that in ticket sales several weeks back. He's an unquestioned A-lister.
The first film topped out at just over $400 million in its original run, with a recent re-release to hype up the sequel taking in north of $30 million worldwide. That speaks volumes about how the audience has only grown since the first entry hit theaters and HBO Max simultaneously in 2021, and it also bodes well for those who want to see Villeneuve return to make "Dune Messiah" in a few years.
"Dune: Part Two" is in theaters now.