Dune premiered in domestic theaters over the weekend and earned $40.1 million. At first glance, that might seem like the movie did fairly well its opening weekend. The problem is, first glances don’t always give you accurate information.
When you factor in how many theater screens Dune appeared on this past weekend, that $40.1 million is not at all impressive. Box Office Mojo is reporting Dune premiered on 4,125 screens. When you take that $40.1 million and spread it out over those 4,125 screens, that works out to be $9,721 per screen. You don’t have to be a Mentat to know that’s low when compared to other big-budget movies.
For example, here are the numbers for some other recent big-budget movies:
- Venom: Let There Be Carnage 4,225 screens – $21,309
- Black Widow 4,160 screens – $19,318
- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings 4,300 screens – $17,532
- Halloween Kills 3,705 screens – $13,334
- Dune 4,125 screens – $9,721
I’m not even sure Halloween Kills should be classified as a big-budget movie. Never the less, it out performed Dune at the box office.
Something to take into concidertion when comparing these movies is that Dune appeared on HBO Max the night before it premiered in theaters. This fact undoubtedly affected Dune‘s performance at the box office. That said, Halloween Kills also shared its premiere between home streaming and the theater. The difference is Halloween Kills premiered on Peacock while Dune premiered on the more popular HBO Max. Black Widow premiered on Disney+, but subscribers had to pay to watch it.
Dune isn’t a complete movie. Hidden from all the marketing of the move was the fact that it’s only part one of the complete movie. The movie being the complete first book in the series. The viewer is not told of this fact until the movie begins to play and it says, “DUNE PART ONE” on the screen.
Work has not yet begun on the second part. Warner Bros. has said they will not even authorize the making of the second part unless the first part does well at the box office. Judging from how Dune under performed domestically during its opening week end, it doesn’t look like the second part will get made.
Not at only $9,721 per screen.
Who knows? Warner Bros. might change its mind and go ahead and green light a second Dune movie, regardless of its box office performance. Hollywood works in weird, mysterious ways.
Update
Dune: Part Two got the go-ahead by Legendary.
This is only the beginning…
Thank you to those who have experienced @dunemovie so far, and those who are going in the days and weeks ahead. We're excited to continue the journey! pic.twitter.com/mZj68Hnm0A
— Legendary (@Legendary) October 26, 2021
Warner Bros. and Legendary partnered up to make Dune.