A cursory glance at the internet will tell you that Dune is already one of the major online talking points heading into the weekend, which bodes well for Denis Villenueve’s sci-fi blockbuster both at the box office and on HBO Max, where it’s poised to top the charts on both fronts.
In even better news, the latest adaptation of the iconic source novel has brought in a solid $5.1 million from Thursday preview screenings, as per Deadline. That’s well ahead of fellow day-and-date hybrid The Suicide Squad, which nabbed $4.1 million, and it’s even ahead of the $4.85 million posted by Halloween Kills last weekend, although Dune isn’t expected to come close to the slasher sequel’s $50 million three-day frame.
Industry analysts estimate that Warner Bros. will be happy if Dune soars past $300 million globally given the current circumstances caused by the pandemic, which is an entirely reasonable target. The 165-minute saga also releases in China today, a country where effects-driven fantasy always tends to play very well among audiences.
All told, the studio are projecting Dune to have brought in somewhere in the region of $35 million by the time the dust settles on Sunday, which would be a great start for such an ambitious and potentially polarizing project, especially one that only tells half a story.