Warner Bros. has moved Denis Villeneuve's Dune back a month to December 2020, while at the same time scheduling Baz Luhrmann's Elvis biopic to arrive in 2021. In an era where franchises and IPs rule the box office, WB is hoping to bring Frank Herbert's Dune back to the big screen and successfully kick-off a series of films and TV shows based in that universe. They've certainly found a worthy candidate for the job in Villeneuve, who's coming off directing back to back critical hits in Arrival and Blade Runner 2049.
Of course, the studio also has its fair share of non-franchise offerings and/or potential awards season contenders in the pipeline right now. Among them are Luhrmann's Elvis project, which has already cast Austin Butler as the Rock n' Roll icon Elvis Presley and Tom Hanks as his manager, Thomas "Colonel Tom" Parker. Now, both that film and Dune have received brand-new release dates.
According to Deadline, WB has shifted Dune back a month from November 20, 2020 to December 18 that same year. The studio has also set the as-yet untitled Elvis biopic to open on October 1, 2021 (where it will face-off with a currently untitled Paramount-Hasbro project).
Dune's move to a mid-December release date is an intriguing one, if only because another sci-fi franchise, Star Wars, has claimed that spot for three of the past four years (and will do so once again when The Rise of Skywalker arrives in 2019). The winter holiday frame has served a galaxy far, far away well at the box office so far, and it may yet do the same for Dune - a property that Villeneuve has even referred to as "Star Wars for adults". There will be lots of competition, of course, with both Sony's Uncharted movie and Steven Spielberg's West Side Story set to open on the same day as Dune. Typically, though, moviegoers are more likely to see multiple films in late December than they are other times in the fall and early winter, so that bodes well for Dune's commercial prospects.
As for Elvis - A Star is Born went on to become an Oscar-winning box office hit when it premiered in early October last year, so WB is obviously hoping for a similar success story with Luhrmann's biopic in 2021. And while the director's projects have tended to have semi-cult appeal in the past (save for The Great Gatsby), that might not be the case here. After all, musician biopics often draw a broad audience, as evidenced by Bohemian Rhapsody grossing over $900 million worldwide last year and Rocketman having made $185 million on a $40 million budget since it opened in late May. Still, it remains to be seen how WB and Luhrmann's Elvis movie fares by comparison.
Source: Deadline
