Dune was released to critical acclaim and box office success, enough to warrant a sequel from Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures. Now, Denis Villeneuve's Dune has crossed a major box office milestone roughly a week before the film returns to IMAX screens.
Dune officially earned over $100 million at the domestic box office, crossing the milestone over the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. The Villeneuve (Blade Runner 2049, Sicario, and Arrival) adaptation featured an all-star cast who helped bring the popular novel written by Frank Herbert to life.
Upon its release, Dune was available in theaters and on HBO Max, with the second option no longer available as of November 22. Now, Deadline has reported that Dune will return to IMAX theaters for a limited time starting December 3, 2021. The news of Dune's return arrived just before the sci-fi film grossed over $100 million by Friday, November 26, bringing its worldwide total to $370 million. Dune accomplished this feat by adding another $400K on Thanksgiving, bringing its domestic total to precisely $100.1M. As of now, Dune is only the second Warner Bros. film to hit the $100 million mark in 2021 amid the studios' strategy to release all of its movies this year in theaters and on HBO Max at the same time.
At this time, Dune is playing in 1,312 theaters and is expected to earn an additional $2.26 million over the three-day holiday and $3.2 million since Wednesday. If this holds, Dune will gross a domestic total of $102.4 million by Sunday. Dune reached the $100 million mark on its 35th day of release, while the second Warner Bros. film to hit that milestone, Legendary’s Godzilla vs. Kong, took 12 weekends to do so.
There are already plans for a Dune sequel, which Villeneuve had always intended to produce due to the overwhelming amount of source material in the book. It would be nearly impossible to fit everything within the confines of only one film. Warner Bros. and Legendary have confirmed Dune: Part Two's development, which is slated to hit theaters in 2023. Of course, there's always the possibility that Dune could end up being split into three parts instead of two, especially after this latest box office win.
The book has enough content for multiple films, but oftentimes this can be challenging for talent, directors, and even fans to come back to the "same" story after many years. However, the one thing working in a Dune: Part Three's favor is the passion the people behind the film appear to have for the story. As long as it's an enjoyable film for everyone involved, then there doesn't seem to be any reason why there won't be anything more in store for fans of the sci-fi drama film.
Dune is coming back to IMAX theaters on December 3rd, 2021.