Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Dune.
Denis Villeneuve's Dune is more successful than Blade Runner 2049, and in particular it highlights one key lesson the director took from that movie. Over the past few years, Villeneuve has established himself as one of the best sci-fi filmmakers currently working, with an incredible hot streak from 2016's Arrival to 2021's Dune. 2017's Blade Runner 2049 deserves similar plaudits, but while its reviews were mostly strong (if with some complaints), its commercial performance certainly wasn't. Blade Runner 2049 was a box office bomb, grossing just $259 million on a budget somewhere north of $150m.
In contrast, Dune has performed much better, already beating Blade Runner 2049's total gross and expected to at the very least break even. There are various factors within that: it's debatable whether or not Dune is better than Blade Runner 2049, but it is at least setup as the beginning of an epic new sci-fi franchise, rather than a sequel to a cult movie from the 1980s (albeit a brilliant one). Both movies are long, but Dune has the benefit of not being R-rated, opening it up to a wider audience.
One of the key ways Dune beat out Blade Runner 2049, and the lesson Villeneuve (or at least WB's marketing team) took from that movie was how to use humor, especially for such an otherwise dense film. Dune has lots of complex terminology, weighty themes, and a sprawling world that audiences are thrown into; the story and setting are grandiose, but Villeneuve finds a balance by inserting moments of comedy and lightness. That's not to say it's a laugh-a-minute, but there are enough jokes for mainstream audiences, particularly those not familiar with the books, to keep things from being bogged down by the sheer scale of it all. That's something Blade Runner 2049 noticably lacked, and while it would be unfair to say it harmed the movie's quality, the criticisms that it was boring and overlong might have been tempered with more humor.
In particular, Jason Momoa's Duncan Idaho is crucial to stopping Dune from seeming as dry as the desert world of Arrakis: he's a larger-than-life persona, who cracks wise with Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet), and whether in training, battle, or simply conversation just seems to be having the best time possible. Idaho doesn't appear a lot, but it's enough to give Dune a boost that stops it from flagging, adding a necessary dose of humor and pep to the proceedings. He's the kind of character destined to be a breakout fan favorite, precisely because he is designed to be the most crowd-pleasing figure among this sea of political schemers and would-be messiahs.
Dune also finds a better balance in terms of its action, whether that's smaller-scale fights (where Momoa once again shines brightest) and in the big blockbuster set pieces, offering up a real sense of thrills to entertain the masses. Parts of this was present in Dune's trailers and other marketing materials, which helps to explain why Dune had such a strong opening box office, but it's done so well in the movie that it shows why people have kept seeing Dune and why there's going to be a sequel, which is sadly not something Blade Runner 2049 achieved.
