Warner Bros. and Legendary’s “Dune: Part Two” is off and running at the box office, earning a strong $12 million from Thursday preview screenings as it is expected to earn a $70 million-plus domestic start this weekend.
Comparisons to recent Thursday previews are not exact as that figure for “Dune 2” includes a Feb. 25 advance Imax screening that brought in $2 million, but it is above the $10.5 million that “Oppenheimer” earned in Thursday previews last July before earning an $82.4 million opening weekend. It’s also more than double the $5.1 million preview total that the first “Dune” earned in October 2021.
Riding a wave of pre-release buzz with a 96% Rotten Tomatoes score and gushing social media buzz from early screening attendees, “Dune: Part Two” is the great sandy hope for movie theaters that have weathered a brutal February at the box office. Two months into the year, annual domestic grosses have only reached $852 million, down 21% from 2023.
Significant competition lies ahead later in the month with films like “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” and fellow Legendary film “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” but with its overwhelmingly strong word-of-mouth, “Dune: Part Two” is in line to surpass the $433 million global theatrical run of its predecessor.
The first “Dune” also racked up six Oscar wins, so the spectacularly crafted “Dune: Part Two” will likely be a hot topic of conversation for the rest of the year.
