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It’s finally time to return to Arrakis.
Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Two” has arrived, grossing an impressive $12 million in box office trailers in more than 3,400 theaters. The big-screen Imax screenings accounted for $4.5 million of that huge haul.
Warner Bros. and Legendary’s epic sci-fi sequel is projected to make between $70 million and $80 million in its opening weekend, with some estimates even putting it at the $90 million mark. Such a big debut would make it the biggest opening for a film since last October’s horror hit “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” which opened with $80 million.
The trailer’s gross is more than double that of “Dune: Part One,” which grossed $5.1 million by debuting simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max during the pandemic. “Part One” opened with $41 million and ended its run with $402 million worldwide, one of the few box office hits of the pandemic.
Timothée Chalamet and his “Dune” co-stars return for the sequel roughly two and a half years after the original debuted in fall 2021. Chalamet’s Paul Atreides flees the evil Harkonnen clan on the desert planet Arrakis. . He joins the native Fremen; he falls for Zendaya’s blue-eyed, tough Chani; rides a giant sandworm; and leads an army in the war against the Harkonnen.
Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgard, Javier Bardem and Dave Bautista return from the first film (the sequel features much more Zendaya, who only had a few scenes in the original). Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Christopher Walken, Lea Seydoux and Anya Taylor-Joy join the franchise as characters from Frank Herbert’s sprawling novel.
The box office has been quiet so far this year, so “Dune 2” will be a much-needed pick-me-up for movie theaters. Reviews have been overwhelmingly positive, as Variety Film critic Peter Debruge wrote: “Audiences spoiled by television series like ‘The Sopranos,’ ‘Succession’ and ‘Game of Thrones,’ which combined intricate strategies with explosive confrontations over many years, will find in the saga Villeneuve’s multi-part film a satisfaction that few films can offer. It’s a huge gamble, given the cost of creating on this scale, and a vote of confidence in cinema, which has yet to recover to the pre-pandemic level that was at stake when the franchise was conceived. “The fate of much more than Arrakis depends on ‘Dune.'”