DUNE: PART TWO Nears $700 Million Worldwide
By Movieguide® Contributor
DUNE: PART TWO is nearing $700 million worldwide, making it the highest total revenue earner this year.
Per Variety, “Director Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi epic has grossed $276 million in North America and $419 million overseas, bringing its global tally to $695.8 million after eight weeks of release. It’s an impressive benchmark in post-COVID times; only five movies in 2023, eight in 2022 and five in 2021 managed to cross the $700 million mark.”
Part of Movieguide®’s review reads:
DUNE: PART TWO is visually stunning. This doesn’t take away from the movie’s epic, dramatic storytelling. In one sense, PART TWO is a love story between Paul and Chani, set against the backdrop of a struggle for freedom. However, DUNE: PART TWO is also a story about good and evil, political power, religion, justice, revenge, and the consequences of wielding power on a worldwide, galactic scale. That said, the movie has some politically correct, direct attacks on religious “fundamentalism” that can be used to attack all religion, but especially Christians and Muslims.
While DUNE: PART TWO is still showing in select theaters nationwide, it is now available to watch from home.
The film is available to rent on “Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Apple TV, Fandango at Home and Google Play Movies & TV starting at $24.99. You can buy the film for $29.99,” Arizona Central reported.
Following PART TWO’s success, fans are wondering if a third installment is in the works.
Movieguide® previously reported:
Villeneuve’s dream for his third and final movie is to bring Herbert’s second book, “Dune Messiah,” to movie audiences.
“‘Dune Messiah’ was written in reaction to the fact that people perceived Paul Atreides as a hero,” Villeneuve said. “Which is not what he wanted to do. My adaptation [of “Dune”] is closer to his idea that it’s actually a warning.”
Given the first movie’s success, which grossed over $400 million worldwide during 2021’s lackluster year at the box office, Warner Bros. will likely greenlight Villeneuve’s third venture in the Dune universe.
Villeneuve, however, has shared that he would stop at three movies, feeling there would be little source material to go on from there…
While nothing is officially in the works for DUNE: PART 3, the director teased, “there are words on paper.”
“That anger (felt by Zendaya’s character at the end of PART TWO) is tremendous,” Villeneuve told the New York Times of a third movie. “I don’t want to reveal what I’m going to do with the third movie. I know exactly what to do. I’m writing it right now. But there’s a lot of firepower there, and I’m very excited about that decision.”
The third film will need to decide “whether to utilize a time jump to stay true to Messiah’s story or make changes to the source material. The PART TWO ending in particular did tease a deviation from the story as Chani set off in the desert on a sandworm with a feeling of betrayal at Paul’s decision to wed Irulan. In Herbert’s original novel, Paul and Lady Jessica were able to convince her to accept the political move as he promised to remain completely loyal to her,” Screen Rant wrote.
