Dune: Part Two's Box Office Debut Is Twice The Size Of The First Movie

Don't underestimate desert power. Denis Villeneuve's "Dune" was a modest box office success when it hit theaters in 2021, scoring a $41.1 million opening weekend and ultimately riding the sandworm to $434 million worldwide (against a $165 million production budget). That was good enough, especially with the extenuating circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic and a day-and-date release on HBO Max, for Warner Bros. Pictures to green light a sequel — which is now racing out far ahead of the first movie.

Variety reports that "Dune: Part Two" has scored the biggest opening day of the year so far: a massive $32.1 million, including $12 million from previews. That's close to double the $17.5 million opening day for "Dune." The Wrap is now projecting a $75 million-plus debut, with Deadline in similar territory with a $76 million estimate. Audience exit polling has awarded the film an excellent A CinemaScore to go with its Certified Fresh critic rating of 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. 

Between the premium ticket sales boost from IMAX screenings and positive word-of-mouth, there's potential for "Dune: Part Two" to become 2024's "Oppenheimer." Christopher Nolan's Oscar-nominated (x13) biographical drama grossed $82.4 million on its opening weekend and has been so leggy that it's still playing in some theaters more than seven months later. "Dune" remained on big screens for around six months during its initial run and recently returned ahead of the sequel — as part of a smartly-crafted release strategy for "Dune: Part Two."

Movie sequels very often see diminishing returns, and there's one obvious reason for that: people who haven't seen the first movie assume they won't know what's going on in the sequel. That's a fair assumption in the case of the "Dune" movies, given that "Part One" and "Part Two" are based on two halves of Frank Herbert's original novel, and are set in a sci-fi world that's dense with lore. If you haven't seen "Dune" then "Dune: Part Two" will at the very least have you asking questions like "what's the deal with the giant worms?" or "why is Timothée Chalamet doing a silly sand walk?"

Warner Bros.' solution to this was simply to make it as easy as possible to watch "Dune" ahead of the second movie. That meant not only a theatrical re-release and opening night double features, but also licensing "Dune" to Netflix, a streaming service with 260 million subscribers worldwide. 

It certainly helps that the "Dune" cast have spent the last few years busily racking up hits. Chalamet's chocolate factory prequel "Wonka" recently passed $600 million at the box office. Florence Pugh played a key role in the aforementioned "Oppenheimer," Zendaya starred in "Spider-Man: No Way Home" not long after her brief debut in "Dune," and newcomer Austin Butler (who plays psychotic Harkonnen heir Feyd-Rautha) broke out by starring in Baz Luhrmann's lucrative music biopic "Elvis."

The box office can be as unpredictable as the sands of Arrakis, so only time will tell how far "Dune: Part Two" can go. Even at this early stage, though, "Dune: Messiah" is looking like an inevitability.