The spice flows, and Other Box Office News.
Two and a half years ago, Dune: Part One was a hit. Warner Bros., in defiance of any and all common sense given that the man’s previous film (Blade Runner 2049) was a notorious $70 million loser for everyone involved, gave Denis Villeneuve $165 million and carte blanche to adapt the first half of Frank Herbert’s famously unfilmable sci-fi literary landmark as, well, a Denis Villeneuve film. Meaning: slow, very serious, philosophical and thematically-driven, cold, and borderline-arthouse in between the jaw-dropping vistas and brutalist special effects.
In defiance of any and all common sense, given that these are usually the sort of things which mainstream audiences sprint away from like they’re being chased by Shai-Hulud, Part One turned into one of the first non-Marvel hits since coming out of enforced pandemic closures; cracking $100 mil domestic despite having a day-and-date HBO Max streaming run, and trebling that number overseas. And yet, a little asterisk hung over proceedings: the question of whether Dune was an actual hit, or whether it was just a hit by the severely-lowered expectations for films released during that uncertain restart-zone from late-Summer 2021 to start of Summer 2022. Would people really turn up to see the second-half?
READ MORE: Doctor Jekyll – Film Review
As of Monday the 4th of March 2024, we can start the process of perhaps retiring that asterisk. Dune: Part Two, the first real blockbuster of the year, is your new Box Office #1 and has become so by almost doubling the opening weekend of its first part; $81.5 million. That’s the biggest opening ever for Denis Villeneuve, the biggest opening of 2024 so far by a country mile, and the biggest opening since TAYLOR SWIFT | THE ERAS TOUR’s $93 million back in October of 2023.
Overseas, Part Two has already banked around $100 million to take it right up to the cusp of the film’s $190 million budget, seeing major increases on Part One’s opening in three-quarters of its markets and #1 in 67 countries. And, possibly putting pay to my cynical fears that this being a major downer of a film might kill word-of-mouth or audience revisits, Du–Two’s daily holds were rock-solid (only a 10% Sat drop and 30% Sun drop) and the Cinemascore is an outright “A.”
READ MORE: Powertool Cheerleaders vs the Boyband of the Screeching Dead – Film Review
There are, of course, reasons to hold fire on letting the hype overflow from these results beyond hype in general being the mind-killer. As mentioned, Dune is the first real blockbuster of 2024 on a release slate that’s been more arid than the sands of Arrakis, so perhaps that novelty could’ve inflated the numbers a tad. Supposedly, almost half of that domestic haul has come from premium formats – IMAX, 70mm, 4DX, etc. – which all have additional surcharges and will have to give up real estate to the other big releases coming down the pipeline in the next few weeks, which may not be great for legs.
And then there’s China, Part One’s biggest market, where it opens next week to a theatrical landscape that has been really tough for American cinema to break through of late. All factors to keep an eye on in the coming weeks. After all, most of you just got out of seeing a film about how going fanatical over a Lisan al Gaib leads to heartbreak and disappointment, so likely will appreciate the irony in anyone getting too celebratory about these numbers. But for today’s battle? Desert power wins out.
Power over Full List is power over all.
US Box Office Results: Friday 1st March 2024 – Sunday 3rd March 2024
1] Dune: Part Two
$81,500,000 / NEW
I am a massive Denis Villeneuve fan; honestly might be my favourite working director right now. I don’t think this is the masterpiece everyone else is rapturously insisting it is, especially not when the 1-2-3 of Sicario, Arrival, and Blade Runner 2049 are right there. It’s too ungainly, cold, and messy to be a masterpiece like Villeneuve’s best, which (as someone who hasn’t read the books) feels like an inherent feature of Dune in anything other than a literary medium. But there are so many moments where it absolutely feels like a masterpiece and I didn’t want the film to end. Blank cheques and carte blanche to this man for the rest of his days, or at least until he finally hangs himself on enough rope.
2] Bob Marley: One Love
$7,430,000 / $82,771,080
Oh mother of god no… Look at what you’ve done! LOOK AT WHAT YOU’VE DONE! You’ve empowered them to finally make a Beatles biopic! FOUR OF THEM! FOR EACH MEMBER! BY SAM “POUNDLAND CHRISTOPHER NOLAN” MENDES! THIS IS YOUR DOING! ABOMINATION!
3] Ordinary Angels
$3,850,000 / $12,561,122
In lieu of having anything relevant to say about this movie, please let me link you to Lee Thacker’s piece celebrating a half-century of ABBA domination! Yes, Waterloo the album turns 50 this week and, thanks to ABBA Voyage, it’s probably going to outlive us all in our inevitable climate-disaster future like that bit in Blade Runner 2049 where they go to Vegas.
4] Madame Web
$3,200,000 / $40,441,516
Christ, I’ve gotta sit through two more of these dreadful Sony-verse Spidey villain movies this year. Really says something that Marvel and DC responded to the general audience’s growing distaste for bad superhero films by basically taking the entirety of 2024 off, aside from Deadpool & Wolverine, in an effort to stabilise their vitals. Then you have Sony trying to Robert Thorn at the end of The Omen the entire genre via sewage saturation.
5] The Chosen: S4 Episodes 7 – 8
$3,154,905 / $3,915,535 / NEW
$500,000 less over the three-day and $400,000 less over the four-day than the last one of these made, but still solidly consistent overall. I choose to believe that drop is because, like with the latest Demon Slayer “movie,” it’s offering less value for money than the prior entries. Yes, I know the seasons are only eight episodes long so there’s nothing they could do, but it’s still objectively a rip to pay the same for less content!
6] Migration
$2,500,000 / $123,456,880
It’s already a hack, cliché critique to level at any film, but I really do think AI could put Illumination out of business. You put the general buzzwords of an Illumination movie into one of those abominations soulless artistic-gentrification mills ethically-incontinent and intellectually baron black holes machines and I can almost guarantee the results will be near-indistinguishable from the real thing. Will probably have equally as repulsive human designs and weird Asian stereotyping, too.
7] Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba – To the Hashira Training
$2,065,000 / $15,701,455
82% drop from last week so, yep, it was the IMAX novelty propping this one up.
8] Wonka
$1,735,000 / $216,760,157
I’m ready to call Timothée Chalamet one of our best working actors. I’d been resistant to this instinct for a while, even after seeing him kill it as an old-fashioned song-and-dance man in Wonka, cos I thought maybe I was mostly taken in by his twink fuckboi niche, a niche he is phenomenal at for the record, and his range wouldn’t be all that. But, goddamn, when he turns it on in Dune: Part Two’s last forty minutes – if you’ve seen the film, you’ll know what I mean by that – I was blown the fuck away. This man has It, he has RANGE, he has PRESENCE, and yes I would like to cuddle with him whilst he mansplains Immanuel Kant to me what of it.
9] Argylle
$1,400,000 / $43,968,805
On the subject of things (Matthew Vaughn) I loved 10 years ago and now look back on rather embarrassed by as a more mature adult, South Park! Their first actual good video game, The Stick of Truth, turned 10 on Monday and Amy Walker reflected on its belaboured journey into the world, whilst also carefully avoiding talking about all the comedy/ideology parts which really do not hold up.
10] The Beekeeper
$1,114,519 / $64,928,965
Being added to Sky Cinema this Friday, if you’re yet to see it. Statham may not kill anyone with bees, but if you can get over that disappointment then it’s a real fun time.
Dropped out: Drive-Away Dolls, The Chosen: S4 Episodes 4 – 6#