Dune 2 And Kung Fu Panda 4 Are Dueling For The Box Office Top Spot This Weekend

With no big new releases at the box office this weekend, sci-fi epic "Dune: Part Two" and "Kung Fu Panda 4" are staying seated at the top of the charts. It's a closer race than last week, though, as the second half of Denis Villeneuve's "Dune" adaptation continues to draw crowds and rake in those lucrative IMAX ticket sales. Deadline reports that "Dune: Part Two" is tracking to gross $28-29 million in its third weekend at the box office, a relatively small drop of around 38% from last week.

The beauty of counter-programming, though, is that two big movies can dominate at the box office without cannibalizing each other (sometimes they can even team up and help each other). After a strong $57.9 million start last weekend, "Kung Fu Panda 4" is tracking for a $31.5 million second weekend, a drop of around 46%. 

While Jack Black's kung fu fighting panda looks likely to land the No. 1 spot for a second weekend, it's worth noting that both of these titles have been pulling out ahead of projections. "Dune: Part Two" was tracking for a $75 million opening weekend on its first Saturday, but ended up with $82.5 million. Last weekend, both movies ended up $2-3 million ahead of their Saturday estimates. Whichever movie ends up taking the top spot, it's heartening to see two movies with very different target audiences thriving alongside one another — a welcome respite for theaters after a rough start to the year.

As mentioned above, there are no huge new releases this week — but that doesn't mean there are no new releases. We've been keeping an eye on the Mark Wahlberg-led, dog-focused, true story-based "Arthur the King," since it has a similar recipe to 2022's surprise hit "Dog": tough guy lead actor (Channing Tatum, in that movie's case) goes on a heartwarming odyssey with an adorable canine. After grossing $3 million on Friday it looks like "Arthur the King" will fall short of the $14 million opening weekend that "Dog" enjoyed, but it's still off to a decent start, tracking for an opening weekend in the region of $8 million. With a production budget of less than $20 million, the movie doesn't need to do huge numbers to succeed. The feel-good story of "Arthur the King" earned an A CinemaScore from opening night audience polling, which could bode well for its performance in the weeks to come.

"Love Lies Bleeding," the second feature film from "Saint Maud" director Rose Glass, expanded to 1,362 locations this week following a limited debut last weekend. Per Variety, it's on track for a $2.5 million opening weekend — not a huge start, but not atypical for prestige indie distributor A24, which tends to rely on slow but steady ticket sales rather than big opening weekends. The highly-anticipated crime thriller/romance has earned rave reviews, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 92% as of this writing. You can read /Film's review here.

The other arthouse expansion this week is "The American Society of Magical Negroes," the directorial debut from comedian and actor Kobi Libii, which is underperforming in the wake of pretty dismal reviews. The Focus Features pic is tracking to gross around $1 million from 1,147 locations.