Denis Villenueve’s Dune will be hoping to parlay critical acclaim into box office success this coming weekend, even if the sci-fi epic has already gotten off to a strong start internationally. It’s a bold and very risky strategy to spend $165 million on a 156-minute epic that doesn’t have an ending, so the director must be confident he’ll get his sequel.
Debuting the entire slate of Warner Bros. projects on HBO Max the same day they hit theaters has had a drastic effect on box office takings; the entire slate has under-performed theatrically except for Godzilla vs. Kong, and even then that’s largely down to a mammoth $188 million haul from China alone.
However, in a new interview with Deadline, WarnerMedia CEO and noted enemy of SnyderVerse enthusiasts Ann Sarnoff was asked about the status of Dune: Part Two, where she gave an answer that could hardly be interpreted as cryptic.
“Will we have a sequel to Dune? If you watch the movie you see how it ends. I think you pretty much know the answer to that.”
That’s encouraging to hear, especially when Villenueve’s previous blockbuster sci-fi Blade Runner 2049 didn’t generate the franchise that was hoped for. Rumors abound that Dune: Part Two has already been given the okay behind the scenes, but whether that’s true or not, we should be getting a definite answer sooner rather than later.