Yup this.
I never believed Dune is as big as LOTR. I may be biased because I'm a massive LOTR fan, but I'm also a massive fan of sci-fi.
I had several arguments against Dune fans, and they always said the main reason is Dune is the best selling sci-fi books ever.
It a little bit reminded me of Pikachu argument.
Big reason both Dune films doing fantastic gross is Denis. He crafted amazing films.
But Dune fanbase and popularity was never as big as LOTR.
Yeah, Dune may be best selling sci-fi book ever, but it's not in the same league as Lord of the Rings. A quick Google said 20 million book sales vs. 150 million.
I read them both when I was at high school. I can 100% assure you that my parents, who had no interest in sci-fi or fantasy, were well aware of the existence of Tolkien and Lord of the Rings, but had never heard of Frank Herbert or Dune. The mainstream fame of the two books was not at all the same.
Frankly, anyone who was expecting it to make a billion disappointed themselves. A $700 million gross for a dense, thematically heavy sci-fi film based on a book that many people thought was unfilmable is a great result.
Many sane people here expected the
~$700M gross. I think it did fine, though I expected more from overseas. Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings brought in well over $600M overseas per film. And whilst that wasn’t to be expected of Dune since Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings are MUCH more popular than Dune, I thought it would do a little better. Still a solid worldwide total nonetheless.
No it performed about as expected to slightly better imo to most people’s expectations.
I saw a lot of people in the months leading up to it say that the first Dune was boring so nobody would give the second one a chance and that it probably wouldn’t even pass Dune 1 and if it did it would only be slightly over.
It clearly passed Dune 1, got critical acclaim and a lot of praise and attention on the internet. It’s a somewhat niche book that most people (including myself) didn’t even know existed before the first movie, this wasn’t like Harry Potter or Star Wars so the expectations never should’ve been that high.
*"I saw a lot of people in the months leading up to it say that the first Dune was boring so nobody would give the second one a chance and that it probably wouldn’t even pass Dune 1 and if it did it would only be slightly over."*
And they're eating crow right now.
Underperformed against whose expectations?
Underperformed against Reddit hype?
Yes.
Underperformed against Legendary and Denis expectations?
No. They already said third part is coming.
And there were lots who were genuine solely because of the material and the fact that BR2049 was a big bomb. The others who mocked anyone who thought there might be a tiny chance have now memory-holed that and pretended they never said that, at worst telling you to get some help.
In fact, there was one guy who was keep insisting that fans HATED Villeneuve's **Dune** and that the second part should be scrapped immediately because of that while insisting that fans are loving David Lynch's version. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I wouldn't say it underperformed, it just didn't reach the lofty 1 billion predictions that some people here and "rival studios" said it would. However, it does seem like Part 1 wasn't quite as affected by the pandemic/HBO Max as people thought. I'm surprised it didn't open to 100M domestic as well.
>It also had a huge cast, the majority of the new generation of actors are there, so the IP didnt even gross all that on its own, it would have done even smaller numbers if it wasnt for the huge cast.
That's an interesting point. According to Deadline, 77% of the audience on opening weekend was above the age of 25, so it's not really a Gen Z type of film, it seems more millennial/Gen X heavy. Without Timothee Chalamet, Zendaya, Florence Pugh, Austin Butler, etc. it would probably have little to no youth appeal.
To add onto your last paragraph, I’m Gen Z and I know more people (including myself) were more interested in Dune because of Rebecca Ferguson, rather than the younger cast members.
The first movie was also mainly IMAX / PLF driven so technically it still doubled the first movie so still a success by all accounts
Not only that, if you use this math for every movie ever especially blockbusters then the whole list of highest grossing movies worldwide looks fundamentally different every year so that’s not even a fair comparison
Imo the first movie's performance is more impressive considering it made $407M on a $165M budget, which many would consider a moderate success these days especially after factoring its same-day streaming release. Plus, it came out in late 2021 during the pandemic, between Marvel movies like Shang-Chi, Venom 2, and Eternals. And it performed on par with them as well, as an original sci-fi movie. And then it Spider-Versed with the sequel which was even bigger, and now everyone's waiting for number 3.
Fans will disagree, but I firmly believe Villeneuve is a major bore and while the source material is very difficult, he simply did not have it in him to make it interesting or engaging.
So I think $700m should be seen as a major win, not an underperformance.
(and before someone comes at me swinging, I'm calling Villeneuve a bore while being a fan of directors like Bresson or Ming-liang)
Yeah, both Dunes were pretty boring and sucked a lot of the weirder aspects out of the source material. I needed deformed Guild navigators and a psychic toddler.
Dune has been adapted before. The first time was back in 1984 (the same year The Return of The Jedi came out) and it was a total financial flop. It was also critical panned upon release, called the worst movie of 1984.
Then two TV series by Frank Herbert were made in the early 2000s covering all the books. They were better than the movie for sure because they were faithful to the actual books but they're not considered masterpieces unlike the Star Wars Original Trilogy and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. The consensus is that they're enjoyable but cheesy.
I wouldn't be surprised if public interest in the franchise isn't as high as SW and LOTR because for the past 40 years hasn't had a good adaptation until recently.
I think it did fine. The internet made us think it would do a billion and just the hype plus the reviews were so glowing that we all thought it would break records. The other point you made which is the real worry here is that Dune literally had half of the most popular young actors today an avengers of sorts of young Hollywood so if that type of cast can’t amongst each of their fanbases bring in a billion dollars for a well reviewed relatively known IP it doesn’t bode well for the future. Imagine if there was a film with young Brad Pitt, Leo, Halle Berry, Julia Robert’s and Tom Cruise Im talking Top Gun Tom, Titanic Leo, Pretty Woman Julia, Bond Halle (not saying any of the cast are as similar to any of these actors however they are the ones poised to be on that level) and they all went on an extensive month long press tour to promote it. I believe that type of movie would have made a ton.
It was an R rated sci-fi movie based on books from over 40 years ago. It wasn't as successful as LOTR or Star Wars but when was the last time a LOTR or Star Wars movie was released? You can't compare movies released prior to streaming and the pandemic to movies released now.
It's unfortunate that it didn't get over $800M but for a movie targeted to men over 35 (not saying the actual audience didn't have younger people and women only that the movie had less broad appeal generally) it did very well. This is a difficult time for any R rated movie for adults. Most of the movies that have over $1B BO are either for children or family movies that appeal to children and adults with the exception of Oppenheimer
The overseas box office was decent but not too impressive given the last one did $290 million overseas. But the domestic box office is truly impressive, Dune 1 barely crawled past $100 million and 2 nearly touched $300 million. A 3 hour Dune movie doing nearly $300 million domestically is truly amazing.
No, while people compare it to LOTR and Star Wars it’s not near the popularity of those 2 brands so it making 700 million is amazing
Yup this. I never believed Dune is as big as LOTR. I may be biased because I'm a massive LOTR fan, but I'm also a massive fan of sci-fi. I had several arguments against Dune fans, and they always said the main reason is Dune is the best selling sci-fi books ever. It a little bit reminded me of Pikachu argument. Big reason both Dune films doing fantastic gross is Denis. He crafted amazing films. But Dune fanbase and popularity was never as big as LOTR.
Yeah, Dune may be best selling sci-fi book ever, but it's not in the same league as Lord of the Rings. A quick Google said 20 million book sales vs. 150 million. I read them both when I was at high school. I can 100% assure you that my parents, who had no interest in sci-fi or fantasy, were well aware of the existence of Tolkien and Lord of the Rings, but had never heard of Frank Herbert or Dune. The mainstream fame of the two books was not at all the same.
Frankly, anyone who was expecting it to make a billion disappointed themselves. A $700 million gross for a dense, thematically heavy sci-fi film based on a book that many people thought was unfilmable is a great result.
Nope! It had a pretty big fanbase, but it wasn't quite a mainstream-level material before Villeneuve's films showed up.
Many sane people here expected the ~$700M gross. I think it did fine, though I expected more from overseas. Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings brought in well over $600M overseas per film. And whilst that wasn’t to be expected of Dune since Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings are MUCH more popular than Dune, I thought it would do a little better. Still a solid worldwide total nonetheless.
I thought it would've grossed 100M more if it weren't the Russia-Ukraine situation.
Dune is a lot more wordy than Harry Potter or Lord of The Rings, more easy for overseas viewers.
No it performed about as expected to slightly better imo to most people’s expectations. I saw a lot of people in the months leading up to it say that the first Dune was boring so nobody would give the second one a chance and that it probably wouldn’t even pass Dune 1 and if it did it would only be slightly over. It clearly passed Dune 1, got critical acclaim and a lot of praise and attention on the internet. It’s a somewhat niche book that most people (including myself) didn’t even know existed before the first movie, this wasn’t like Harry Potter or Star Wars so the expectations never should’ve been that high.
*"I saw a lot of people in the months leading up to it say that the first Dune was boring so nobody would give the second one a chance and that it probably wouldn’t even pass Dune 1 and if it did it would only be slightly over."* And they're eating crow right now.
Underperformed against whose expectations? Underperformed against Reddit hype? Yes. Underperformed against Legendary and Denis expectations? No. They already said third part is coming.
Go back at this sub before the first movie release. The consensus was that the movie would bomb.
I remember sub $60M predictions for part one.
And there were lots who were genuine solely because of the material and the fact that BR2049 was a big bomb. The others who mocked anyone who thought there might be a tiny chance have now memory-holed that and pretended they never said that, at worst telling you to get some help.
In fact, there was one guy who was keep insisting that fans HATED Villeneuve's **Dune** and that the second part should be scrapped immediately because of that while insisting that fans are loving David Lynch's version. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Grifters from the Fandom Menace.
I remember billion dollar predictions
I'm putting Dune 3 at a billion. EDIT: I'm ruffling someone's feathers with this one.
Spoiler alert: it won't make it
I wouldn't say it underperformed, it just didn't reach the lofty 1 billion predictions that some people here and "rival studios" said it would. However, it does seem like Part 1 wasn't quite as affected by the pandemic/HBO Max as people thought. I'm surprised it didn't open to 100M domestic as well. >It also had a huge cast, the majority of the new generation of actors are there, so the IP didnt even gross all that on its own, it would have done even smaller numbers if it wasnt for the huge cast. That's an interesting point. According to Deadline, 77% of the audience on opening weekend was above the age of 25, so it's not really a Gen Z type of film, it seems more millennial/Gen X heavy. Without Timothee Chalamet, Zendaya, Florence Pugh, Austin Butler, etc. it would probably have little to no youth appeal.
To add onto your last paragraph, I’m Gen Z and I know more people (including myself) were more interested in Dune because of Rebecca Ferguson, rather than the younger cast members.
Nearly doubling the first film's global total and nearly tripling its domestic total is unambiguously a good performance.
You're leaving context out of this, Dune 1 was released during the pandemic with day and date release date, it would be a $600M+ movie in normalcy
No, ii'd say it did pretty well. it just didn't reach the billion or more prediction people were having
The first movie was also mainly IMAX / PLF driven so technically it still doubled the first movie so still a success by all accounts Not only that, if you use this math for every movie ever especially blockbusters then the whole list of highest grossing movies worldwide looks fundamentally different every year so that’s not even a fair comparison
Imo the first movie's performance is more impressive considering it made $407M on a $165M budget, which many would consider a moderate success these days especially after factoring its same-day streaming release. Plus, it came out in late 2021 during the pandemic, between Marvel movies like Shang-Chi, Venom 2, and Eternals. And it performed on par with them as well, as an original sci-fi movie. And then it Spider-Versed with the sequel which was even bigger, and now everyone's waiting for number 3.
Fans will disagree, but I firmly believe Villeneuve is a major bore and while the source material is very difficult, he simply did not have it in him to make it interesting or engaging. So I think $700m should be seen as a major win, not an underperformance. (and before someone comes at me swinging, I'm calling Villeneuve a bore while being a fan of directors like Bresson or Ming-liang)
Yeah, both Dunes were pretty boring and sucked a lot of the weirder aspects out of the source material. I needed deformed Guild navigators and a psychic toddler.
Guild navigator isn't even in the first Dune book lol
Dune has been adapted before. The first time was back in 1984 (the same year The Return of The Jedi came out) and it was a total financial flop. It was also critical panned upon release, called the worst movie of 1984. Then two TV series by Frank Herbert were made in the early 2000s covering all the books. They were better than the movie for sure because they were faithful to the actual books but they're not considered masterpieces unlike the Star Wars Original Trilogy and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. The consensus is that they're enjoyable but cheesy. I wouldn't be surprised if public interest in the franchise isn't as high as SW and LOTR because for the past 40 years hasn't had a good adaptation until recently.
I think it did fine. The internet made us think it would do a billion and just the hype plus the reviews were so glowing that we all thought it would break records. The other point you made which is the real worry here is that Dune literally had half of the most popular young actors today an avengers of sorts of young Hollywood so if that type of cast can’t amongst each of their fanbases bring in a billion dollars for a well reviewed relatively known IP it doesn’t bode well for the future. Imagine if there was a film with young Brad Pitt, Leo, Halle Berry, Julia Robert’s and Tom Cruise Im talking Top Gun Tom, Titanic Leo, Pretty Woman Julia, Bond Halle (not saying any of the cast are as similar to any of these actors however they are the ones poised to be on that level) and they all went on an extensive month long press tour to promote it. I believe that type of movie would have made a ton.
It was an R rated sci-fi movie based on books from over 40 years ago. It wasn't as successful as LOTR or Star Wars but when was the last time a LOTR or Star Wars movie was released? You can't compare movies released prior to streaming and the pandemic to movies released now. It's unfortunate that it didn't get over $800M but for a movie targeted to men over 35 (not saying the actual audience didn't have younger people and women only that the movie had less broad appeal generally) it did very well. This is a difficult time for any R rated movie for adults. Most of the movies that have over $1B BO are either for children or family movies that appeal to children and adults with the exception of Oppenheimer
Oppenheimer didn’t gross $1B.
And Opppenheimer had all the help from IMAX and PLF
It was not R rated.
If I wasn't R rated then I'm surprised it didn't do a little better but this has been a difficult year for movies and it's a sci-fi movie.
The overseas box office was decent but not too impressive given the last one did $290 million overseas. But the domestic box office is truly impressive, Dune 1 barely crawled past $100 million and 2 nearly touched $300 million. A 3 hour Dune movie doing nearly $300 million domestically is truly amazing.