IMAX ‘ran out of seats' for ‘Dune: Half Two' and Legendary Leisure is serious about ‘Half Three'

• Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Half Two” opened with an estimated $81.5 million on the field workplace, the very best of any movie launched to date in 2024.
• The Warner Bros. and Legendary Leisure movie was buoyed by IMAX ticket gross sales, which represented round 23% of home ticket gross sales, or $18.5 million.
• Legendary Leisure CEO says “Dune: Half Three” may occur “if Denis [Villeneuve] will get the script proper and he feels that he can ship one other expertise on par with what we have simply accomplished.”

After a two-month drought, “Dune: Half Two” has delivered a much-welcomed deluge of ticket gross sales to the home field workplace — and its success may deliver a 3rd franchise movie to cinemas.

The Warner Bros. and Legendary Leisure movie opened with an estimated $81.5 million on the field workplace, the very best of any movie launched to date in 2024.

“Like an oasis within the desert, ‘Dune: Half Two’ is a sight for sore eyes throughout theatrical exhibition and all of Hollywood,” stated Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at BoxOffice.com.

Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi epic, the second within the Dune franchise, was buoyed by IMAX ticket gross sales, which represented round 23% of home ticket gross sales, or $18.5 million.

“The one purpose it wasn’t increased is we ran out of seats,” stated Wealthy Gelfond, CEO of IMAX.

Gelfond famous that presales of the movie had been “actually spectacular” and that in lots of areas, tickets for IMAX screenings aren’t accessible till three weeks out.

“The lesson is that in case you take a stupendous visible expertise, a superb story and you set it within the arms of a superb filmmaker with an IMAX digicam, you are going to get excellent outcomes,” Gelfond stated.

Notably, the whole lot of “Dune: Half Two” was filmed utilizing IMAX digital cameras.

Expectations from studio executives, theater homeowners and field workplace analysts are that the movie could have an extended tail in cinemas and proceed to gather robust ticket gross sales within the weeks to come back. Related, Gelfond stated, to Common’s “Oppenheimer” and Disney’s “Avatar: The Approach Of Water.”

Internationally, the movie is anticipated to tally $97 million, bringing its international haul to $178.5 million. IMAX represented 18% of all worldwide ticket gross sales, the corporate stated. The movie will debut in China on March 8.

“I feel it is a film the place you recognize the phrase of mouth goes to hold it,” Josh Grode, CEO of Legendary Leisure instructed CNBC. “It’s a stupendous piece of filmmaking. There is not any different option to say it. I’ve nearly run out of adjectives.”

Grode did not dismiss rumors of a possible third movie within the franchise, noting that, “We now have to have all inventive stakeholders aligned and help the imaginative and prescient.”

“I feel everyone may be very excited and actually having fun with this second and if Denis [Villeneuve] will get the script proper and he feels that he can ship one other expertise on par with what we have simply accomplished then I do not see why not,” he stated.

The robust opening for “Dune: Half Two” comes after the movie was faraway from the 2023 film calendar as a result of twin Hollywood labor strikes made it not possible for forged members to advertise the movie publicly.

Grode famous that Legendary Leisure struggled with the choice to maneuver the movie out of its November slot and to a brand new date in March. Nonetheless, he felt that with out a advertising and marketing marketing campaign “that matched the film” the movie may not attain as many moviegoers.

“Hindsight is at all times 2020, however I feel it could be completely the correct choice,” he stated.

The movie’s forged has been closely selling the movie for weeks, collaborating in junkets, video interviews and showing on late-night exhibits. Even the celebs’ premiere outfits have been making headlines, driving extra consciousness of the movie’s launch.

Alongside business veterans equivalent to Christopher Walken, Stellan Skarsgard, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin and Dave Bautista, “Dune: Half Two” options 4 of the largest younger stars in Hollywood: Zendaya, Timothée Chalamet, Florence Pugh and Austin Butler.

Heading into the weekend, the home field workplace had tallied lower than $900 million in ticket gross sales by means of the primary two months of the 12 months, a virtually 18% drop from the identical interval in 2023, in keeping with Comscore knowledge. A lift in the beginning of the 12 months may show essential to a field workplace that is nonetheless struggling to reclaim $10 billion in home annual ticket gross sales, a mark final seen earlier than the Covid-19 pandemic.

“In any given field workplace 12 months there’s a turning level and in 2024 the ‘Dune: Half Two’ debut represents a milestone in a 12 months bereft of blockbuster-sized choices,” stated Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “The field workplace 12 months of ’24 formally kicked off this weekend two months late and never a second too quickly and can assist construct the much-needed momentum for March and past for film theaters.”

Disclosure: Comcast is the mum or dad firm of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal distributed “Oppenheimer.”