The Denis Villeneuve science-fiction epic Dune has just trekked past the $100 million mark in the domestic box office. Based on the 1965 Frank Herbert novel of the same name, Dune follows the exploits of young Paul Atreides as his family - House Atreides - is sent to be the stewards of the hostile desert planet Arrakis. The villainous Baron Harkonnen, who used to rule the planet, is working behind the scenes to take them down, but what he doesn't know is that Paul just might be the person prophesied to save the Fremen people of Arrakis from imperial rule.
Dune is an epic film featuring vast landscapes, heaps of special effects sequences, and a story of such scope that only half of it could be told across the two-and-a-half-hour runtime of the film. The film is also packed with stars who are huge draws to many different demographics. In addition to Timothée Chalamet in the lead, the film features Oscar Isaac, Rebecca Ferguson, Jason Momoa, Josh Brolin, Charlotte Rampling, Zendaya, David Dastmalchian, Javier Bardem, Stellan Skarsgård, and Dave Bautista.
Per Deadline, Dune has now passed $100 million in the domestic box office, bringing its worldwide total to nearly $370 million. This is the quickest that a film from the HBO/Legendary slate has reached that landmark, beating Godzilla vs. Kong from earlier this year. All the films on the slate were released simultaneously on the streaming service HBO Max for the first 31 days, cutting into their box office profits considerably, though Dune's numbers have been solid on both sides of the streaming/theatrical divide.
Warner Bros has plans to keep that Dune box office climbing now that the HBO Max viewing window has concluded and the film is back exclusively in theaters. Keeping the film in the mix over the Thanksgiving holiday has already been promising, with Dune looking to reach $102.4 million by the end of the week, which would make it rise from #13 to #9 on the domestic charts for the year. It's also likely going to get a boost when Dune is re-released in IMAX this December.
Dune isn't necessarily a runaway success, but it is doing well for the company by every conceivable metric. Fans of the film can breathe a sigh of relief that this is the case because it will allow the already greenlit Dune 2 to continue the film's story properly with the necessary epic scope. If this box office trend continues, there's even a chance that the further Dune novels could start to receive the feature film treatment, which would be a first for those sequels.
Source: Deadline