'Dune' Confronts Michael Meyers at the Weekend Box Office
by EG
The long-awaited film adaptation of the classic science fiction novel Dune hits theaters this weekend, and it's likely to be the top movie in theaters. Its box-office take is likely to be held back, at least somewhat, by the fact that it's also being released simultaneously on HBO Max. Last week's top movie, the horror sequel Halloween Kills, will look for any opening it can find to repeat as the box-office winner. Read on for details.
Via Box Office Mojo.
The month of October has shown strong box office returns for franchises, with Venom: Let There Be Carnage, No Time to Die, and Halloween Kills all opening above $50 million and boasting numbers that would have been respectable even in a pre-pandemic marketplace. The domestic launch of Dune this weekend will test whether the same level of success can come to a new property, which is a riskier proposition even in the best of times.
WB’s long-awaited sci-fi epic (and hopeful franchise starter), which is based on Frank Herbert’s novel, is directed by Denis Villeneuve, who has proven himself to be adept at handling science fiction with the films Arrival and Blade Runner 2049. Among the large ensemble cast are Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Dave Bautista, Zendaya, Charlotte Rampling, Jason Momoa, and Javier Bardem.
Herbert’s seminal book was previously adapted for the big screen by David Lynch, whose 1984 film Dune befuddled both critics and audiences and totaled out at $30.9 million at the box office against a budget of $40 million. We’re looking at bigger numbers this time around, with a cost of $165 million and an opening weekend possibly topping the older film’s entire gross. It also has a much warmer response from critics (88% on Rotten Tomatoes), and audiences abroad have taken to the film.
Dune is debuting in 40 overseas markets this week, the biggest being China, Korea, U.K., Mexico, and Brazil, and it has already racked up $130 million from 37 overseas markets where it started its rollout around a month ahead of its domestic release. The response has been strong, and it is among the top grossing films of the year in many countries. In like-for-like markets it is 63% ahead of Shang-Chi and 69% ahead of Black Widow, to compare it to 2021’s top two domestic grossers. Its top market is France, where it is this year’s highest grossing film with $26.2 million.
We can’t expect Dune to have the same soaring success in the U.S. Even putting market differences aside, there is the major caveat that the film has thus far been a theatrical exclusive while it is getting a day-and-date HBO Max release in the U.S. The biggest opening yet for WB’s simul-releases is still Godzilla vs. Kong, which opened to $31.6 over Easter weekend. That’s below Blade Runner 2049’s $32.7 million opening in 2017, which was seen as a disappointment. Dune has the potential to top that, but its streaming availability may prevent it from reaching its box office potential.
Get the rest of the story at Box Office Mojo.