Every single Warner Bros. movie to have released this year has suffered at the domestic box office, and we shouldn’t have to explain why. Debuting all of the 2021 titles on HBO Max the same day they hit theaters may have bumped up subscriber numbers, but it’s hit the bottom line hard.
Godzilla vs. Kong might have netted $467 million globally, but it took thirteen weeks to reach $100 million domestic, and up until today it was the only one of WB’s hybrids to do so. The MonsterVerse epic has now been joined by Denis Villenueve’s Dune, which eventually hit the $100 million barrier after 35 days in theaters.
While the sequel was announced weeks ago, it’s still a feather in the cap for the ambitious literary adaptation, which has a global haul of $368 million heading into the weekend. $400 million might be out of reach when you consider how long Dune has been playing, with the international rollout coming almost a month ahead of the United States, but it’s a solid return nonetheless.
Dune: Part Two is scheduled to shoot next summer to meet an October 2023 bow, and the cast and crew will be buoyed by the news that yet another significant box can be ticked on the checklist of commercial success.