Dune is officially getting a sequel!
Legendary Entertainment announced the news in a tweet on Tuesday, ensuring that the spice will continue to flow on the screen.
Warner Bros. will distribute the film and help finance it, though Legendary is the primary money behind the movie and owns the film rights to the book series.
The sequel for Dune has finally been green lit for October 20, 2023. The film is expected to have an exclusive theatrical run, and Legendary will likely make that point iron-clad after Dune debuted simultaneously in theatres and on HBO Max last week.
The green light news was announced on the Legendary and WB social accounts where they said:
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
“Legendary is pleased to officially move forward with Dune: Part Two … once again based on the amazing books written by Frank Herbert,” said Legendary.
“We would not have gotten to this point without the extraordinary vision of Denis and the amazing work of his talented crew, the writers, our stellar cast, our partners at Warner Bros., and of course the fans! Here’s to more Dune.”
Villeneuve’s Vision
While David Lynch’s 1984 feature adaptation of Frank Herbert’s 412-page 1965 novel crammed the whole story into one movie, it was always part of Villeneuve’s vision to spread his reboot across two films.
“I just received news from Legendary that we are officially moving forward with Dune: Part Two,” the Director said.
“It was a dream of mine to adapt Frank Herbert’s Dune, and I have the fans, the cast, and crew, Legendary and Warner Bros. to thank for supporting this dream. This is only the beginning.
Box Office Smash
The first part of the sci-fi epic, which opened Oct. 22 in the US, earning $41 million in ticket sales on its first weekend. That result was the best film opening of the year for Warner Bros. and a sign of fans’ desire to not only stream Dune, but to see it on the big screen.
The film has also performed well overseas, earning nearly $225 million globally. Its domestic opening results were roughly in line with what Warner Bros. expected the film to generate when it was greenlit, which is notable because that’s long before COVID-19 upended the media landscape.
A return to Arrakis was always part of the plan, Director Denis Villeneuve was adamant in interviews that his adaptation of Frank Herbert’s novel would have two parts. The film’s opening title sequence rather boldly read “Dune: Part 1.”
During an interview at the Toronto Film Festival, Villeneuve said, “I wanted at the beginning to do the two parts simultaneously. For several reasons, it didn’t happen, and I agreed to the challenge of making part one and then waiting to see if the movie brings enough enthusiasm.
As I was doing the first part, I put all my passion into it, in case it would be the only one. But I’m optimistic.”
There’s still a lot of stories left to unfold. Dune: Part 1 ends with Timothée Chalamet’s Paul Atreides, a Messianic figure at the heart of the series, seeking shelter from enemies in the desert. Dune: Part 2 will follow his efforts to exact revenge against the noble families who murdered his father, Duke Leto Atreides, and restore himself to power.
WarnerMedia leadership also hinted at part two in an interview saying that the green light would be based on “the entirety of what ‘Dune’ can do for the company, including HBO Max.”
“The story in itself sets up for a sequel. The production is so amazing and the storytelling is so compelling that it’s not going to be judged on box office alone,” Sarnoff said.
Success
Dune overperformed its domestic projections this past weekend, opening to $41 million, with over half of its ticket sales driven by large-format and PLF theaters. Heading into the weekend we’d heard that Dune had some $12M in advance tickets sales; more than any other event film during the pandemic. The pic was bolstered further by Canada, which delivered 11% of domestic weekend ticket sales; it was on a theatrical window up there since HBO Max isn’t available in the country.
In regards to its performance on HBO Max, while WarnerMedia didn’t report any figures, Samba TV — which measures streaming viewership in 3 million U.S. households — reported that 1.9M Smart TV households watched Villeneuve’s Dune over the weekend. Among the theatrical/HBO Max titles measured by Samba TV, that’s the sixth-best weekend debut by a Warner Bros/HBO Max day-and-date title, Mortal Kombat topped that list with 3.8M.
All of this is a great indicator that those who wanted to watch Dune saw it in a movie theater. Warner Bros launched the movie ahead in overseas markets, where its current global box office stands at $223.2M.
By Akinbola Esther
Twitter: @ennyswit_lamar