It only took Warner Bros. Pictures and Denis Villeneuve two films to establish Dune as a mainstream franchise with a billion dollars pocketed at the global box office.
Much of the series’ commercial success with modern audiences is largely owed to Dune: Part Two, the second half of the two-part adaptation of Frank Herbert’s novel of the same name. It arrives three years after the first film, Dune, set the tone for the rest of the in-development Dune universe, performing splendidly at the box office despite dealing with a relatively fresh COVID-19 pandemic and a simultaneous release on HBO Max.
Of course, most of the praise should go to Villeneuve and the cast for selling audiences a narratively dense and weird sci-fi universe that most probably hadn’t heard much about until now.
Villeneuve’s impressionist but faithful take on the source material has not only made it a draw in standard theaters but also in premium formats where it has already earned over $124 million. It’s now one of the highest-grossing IMAX films of all time, as per Collider.
Dune: Part Two marks the seventh collaboration between Legendary Entertainment and Warner Bros., which started with Godzilla in 2014. This fruitful partnership’s lowest-yielding film was Godzilla: King of the Monsters in 2019 ($387 million) and saw two of the highest-grossing films of the pandemic era of the global box office in Godzilla vs. Kong(470 million) and Dune ($433 million).
With Dune: Part Two now at $575 million, as of the time of the writing, it’s the highest grossing production by the entertainment titan duos and it’s not done yet.
With Dune: Part Two eyeing a $700 million global box office take, a third film is all but guaranteed. But, it’s unclear if Denis Villeneuve will work on a direct sequel with an adaptation of Dune: Messiah or if his other screenplays will take precedence.
For now, those looking for a visual spectacle can still catch Dune: Part Two in IMAX theaters. However, the eighth collaboration between Warner Bros. and Legendary will likely take its place in most theaters when Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire premieres on March 29.
