Warner Bros
EXCLUSIVE: Welcome back to the cinema, everyone.
Legendary Entertainment/Warner Bros.'s Dune: Part Two is off to a strong start Thursday, with previews topping $10 million, according to industry estimates. We've heard that figure includes $2 million from the February 25th Imax fan event screening. Note that these numbers are not from Warner Bros. and therefore could be higher or lower on Friday morning. The preview began today at 3 p.m.
At over $10 million, this is the biggest preview cash we've seen since Barbenheimer on Thursday, July 20, as Warner Bros.'s Barbie earned $22.3 million and Universal's Oppenheimer earned 10.5 brought in millions of US dollars. Additionally, despite being a regular on Universal's Peacock streaming service on October 26, “Five Nights at Freddy's” had a great preview of $10.3 million on Thursday night.
Freddy's opened with $80 million, while Oppenheimer opened with $82.4 million. That's the high end of many's expectations for the Denis Villeneuve-directed sequel to be released this weekend.
The previews for “Dune: Part 2” are well ahead of 2021’s “Dune” on Thursday night, which grossed $5.1 million in screenings starting at 6 p.m. They're also ahead of “John Wick: Chapter 4″'s $8.9 million; This film grossed a three-day total of $73.8 million.
What's a little difficult to predict at this point is that pre-sales for Dune: Part 2 will be in premium format and standard pre-sales are fine, according to sources. An $18 million presale typically indicates that a film will hit theaters for more than $100 million, but many in distribution circles take these presales with a grain of salt.
Dune: Part Two has everything going for it: 95% certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with critical acclaim and a social media universe per RelishMix of 575.5 million across Facebook, X, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. This significantly exceeds the 468.9 million SMU of the first “Dune” in October 2021, which was available daily on HBO Max.
RelishMix reports: “One element in Dune 2's re-dating in the first weekend of November was clearly the cast's social firepower, with Zendaya at 227.8M, Dave Bautista at 180.1M, Timothée Chalamet at 21.1M. , Florence.” Pugh with 9.5 million, Austin Butler with 5.2 million and Josh Brolin with 3.3 million.”
The Social Media Monitor rule states: “Fully activated at 10 on a scale of 10, with all participants being super social and fully activated on all social platforms.”
Nothing but sun, sun, sun for Dune as far as social media chatter goes, just like the desert setting.
RelishMix says: “The tone of conversation for Dune: Part 2 is positive, with people talking about all aspects of the film – from the cinematography to the soundtrack, everything is praised: 'I'm so impressed by the greatness of these films.' This is one Masterclass in Filmmaking; They don't make them like that anymore.' The ensemble cast delights fans by saying, “We'll be seeing more of Zendaya!” and, “It's SO nice to see Christopher Walken back in action.” Fans agree that the director can be trusted Denis Villeneuve delivers good performances as always, and fans remember his work on Dune and Blade Runner 2049. Many compare this to the original Lord of the Rings trilogy. The music by composer Hans Zimmer is particularly exciting among fans. 'This music! Pure goosebumps! Zimmer does it again!' The film is even described as more than a blockbuster, but a “complex geopolitical thriller,” and fans want more of it: “This had better be a film with more than three hours.”
We will post further updates as they become available.