Dune: Part Two released in theaters this past weekend, and the movie wormed its way to a massive debut. In North America, the Dune sequel pulled in $81.5 million for the Friday-Sunday period of March 1-3, which was about double the money ($41 million) that the original film made back in 2021 for its opening weekend. Globally, Dune: Part II has so far earned $178.5 million.
The movie carried a reported budget of $190 million, and that doesn’t count any promotion or marketing expenses. Deadline said about $100 million was spent to promote the film with advertisements and promotional campaigns, bringing the total reported cost of the film to $290 million or more. After its first weekend, Dune: Part II has made back about 65% of its costs, if the reports regarding the budget and marketing spend are indeed accurate.
For comparison, 2021’s Dune was released in theaters and on Max (then known as HBO Max) due to the pandemic. The movie, despite that, still earned more than $430 million worldwide.
Dune: Part Two represents the best-ever opening-weekend box office numbers for director Denis Villeneuve, with his previous record being 2021’s Dune ($41 million).
The sequel was originally targeted to premiere in November 2023. However, Warner Bros. delayed the release to March due to the Hollywood strikes that prevented both actors and writers from doing promotion for their upcoming work. Dune: Part Two’s cast is full of big names –including Timothee Chalamet, Zendaya, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgard, Rebecca Ferguson, and Florence Pugh–and with the strikes over, the cast was free to promote the film to oblivion. That included discussing the viral popcorn bucket.
Looking ahead, Villenueve recently told GameSpot that he might make Dune movies forever or he may stop with Dune: Part Two. He’s been tinkering with a script for a third Dune movie, Dune: Messiah, but he told The Hollywood Reporter it will not be his next project.
