‘Dune 2’ Global Box Office Passes Final Milestone, Theatrical Run Nears End

The Big Picture

Dune: Part Two
continues to dominate the box office, surpassing $700 million globally after 2 months of release.
Director Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi sequel serves as a conclusion to his adaptation of Frank Herbert’s novel.
Villeneuve intends to continue the
Dune
series with a third installment based on
Dune: Messiah
.

Despite having been released on digital platforms, Warner Bros. and Legendary’s Dune: Part Two is continuing to prove how vital the big screen experience is to certain kinds of movies. After two full months of release, the epic science-fiction sequel has passed perhaps its final major global box office milestone. This weekend, Dune: Part Two added around $1.9 million domestically and another $3 million from overseas markets, for a combined total of around $5 million. This was enough to push it past the staggering $700 million milestone globally.

Dune: Part Two has amassed nearly $280 million domestically and another $424 million from overseas markets, for a cumulative global haul of $704 million. Directed by Denis Villeneuve, the film serves as a conclusion to his two-part adaptation of Frank Herbert’s seminal science-fiction novel and follows the aristocrat Paul Atreides on a descent into megalomania as he stages a holy war against a warring faction. Dune: Part Two was produced on a reported budget of $190 million, still holds the record for the year’s biggest opening weekend, and remains the top-grossing film of 2024.

Also directed by Villeneuve, the first Dune film was released at the peak of the pandemic in 2021, both in theaters and on the streaming service formerly known as HBO Max. This strategy, which was applied to each film on W.B.’s 2021 roster, was widely (and famously) derided. Villeneuve himself pushed back publicly, but despite being diluted by streaming, the first Dune proved to be a box office hit, grossing $400 million globally. This figure increased to $430 million after a recent re-release in the run-up to Dune: Part Two.

Can ‘Dune: Part Two’ Repeat the First Film’s Success at the Oscars?

Both movies combined have grossed over $1.1 billion globally, with Villeneuve establishing himself as one of the foremost big-budget filmmakers working today. The first movie also scored 10 Oscar nominations, winning six. His contemporary, Christopher Nolan, gave Dune: Part Two an all-important endorsement ahead of its release. Like most of Nolan’s recent films, including Oppenheimer, Dune: Part Two has been particularly successful in the IMAX format. It was also given a super-premium IMAX 70mm release in around a dozen global locations. The film has since emerged as one of the top-grossing releases of all time in the immersive format.

Villeneuve intends to continue the series with a third installment, based on the novel Dune: Messiah. Starring Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Christopher Walken, Josh Brolin, Dave Bautista, Rebecca Ferguson, and others, Dune: Part Two is available to watch at home and in theaters. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.