‘Dune 2’ Tops ‘Kung Fu Panda 4’ at Worldwide Box Office to Pass $365 Million Global
In a skewed coincidence, 'Kung Fu Panda 4' was just one of two new wide releases, alongside Blumhouse and Sony's 'Imaginary,' centered on fantastical bears.
The strong second-weekend earnings for Dune Part Two is yet another example of how the raw numbers matter far more than arbitrary ranking. No, it wasn’t the top movie at the domestic box office, but A) it still was globally with around $128 million and B) it had an extraordinarily solid hold with terrific grosses anyway. The Legendary/Warner Bros. Discovery release earned another $46 million on weekend two, dropping just 44% from its $82.5 million debut frame for a $157 million ten-day total. That’s a better hold than prominent early-March tentpoles like 300 (-57% from a $70 million debut), Alice in Wonderland (-46%/$116 million), Oz: The Great and Powerful (-48%/$79 million), Logan (-57%/$88 million), Captain Marvel (-56%/$153 million), The Batman (-50%/$134 million) and Creed III (-53%/$58 million). It’s even a slightly better hold than John Wick: Chapter 2, which dropped 46% on weekend two after a $30 million launch.
Both it and Dune Part Two doubled the opening weekend of their respective predecessors ($14 million and $41 million), passed the lifetime North American total of the first film ($44 million and $108 million) by day seven and earned more in weekend two than the first film earned in weekend one. The closer Dune Part Two sticks to John Wick 2 in terms of legs, the better. The second Keanu Reeves actioner earned 1.57x its respective ten-day total for $92 million, a comparison which would leave the second Timothee Chalamet/Zendaya sci-fi epic with $247 million domestic. The above-noted March biggies earned between 1.48x (Logan) and 1.635x (300) their respective ten-day totals, which would give Dune Part Two between $232 million and $257 million in North America. 300 was 17 years ago, while Alice (1.59x) and Oz (1.63x) are family flicks that opened in 2010 and 2013.
Creed III (amid a crowded March slate in 2023) and The Batman (which dominated a near-empty March in 2022) both earned 1.54x their ten-day totals, which seems about right and would give Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi sequel $242 million domestic. The PLF factor should keep the film leggy at least until Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire on March 22, as will the fact that it’s an older-skewing tentpole compared to the Ghostbusters sequel, the Kung Fu Panda follow-up and Godzilla x Kong. Will the allure wear off once it no longer has Imax and (most/many) PLF auditoriums? Maybe, but it’s already a huge domestic hit and, with $367 million worldwide (including a Covid-era decent $20 million debut in China) and going strong, a global winner too. Presuming it doesn’t pull a Maleficent in Japan next weekend, the $190 million-budgeted Dune Part Two should/could end its run with over/under $640 million.
That’s 59% more than the $402 million global cume (sans the recent reissue) of the first Dune. However, that would be around $380 million overseas, “just” 29% more than its $294 million-grossing predecessor. The above-noted $242 million domestic guestimate would be 2.24x its predecessor in North America. That does imply that Dune Part Two was more of a breakout sequel in North America than overseas. That means it can be argued that A) COVID and Project Popcorn were less of an issue outside of the domestic marketplace and B) like Tenet, the first Dune more-or-less earned whatever it was going to earn overseas regardless of the variables. That’s no shade on either film. However, if it seems like I’m shading those who A) swore that Dune would have earned $800 million in non-COVID times and B) swore that Dune Part Two was going to top $1 billion worldwide…
Blumhouse’s Imaginary opened courtesy of Lionsgate, the first such non-sequel horror film to open theatrically not courtesy of Comcast since Sony’s Fantasy Island in early 2020. Both films were directed by Jeff Wadlow (Truth or Dare). Imaginary, about a stepmom (DeWanda Wise) who moves her new family into her childhood home only for weird stuff to start happening related to her stepdaughter’s teddy bear, starts as a seemingly by-the-book Blumhouse single-locale haunted house flick. However, it goes in unexpected and visually compelling directions – aided by Betty Buckley chewing a constipation-level amount of scenery -- during its extended third act. We’re not talking Hellraiser 2-level spectacle, and it’s a PG-13 movie. However, considering the $10 million budget, I was intrigued and impressed. Anyway, it opened with $10 million in its domestic debut. That’s an okay opening for a cheap flick with decent enough post-theatrical revenue potential.
Cabrini grossed $3 million on Friday but proved understandably frontloaded. It earned $2.3 million on Saturday (-24%) and $2.1 million on Sunday for a still-solid $7.56 million opening weekend. The faith-based melodrama starring Cristiana Dell’Anna as Catholic missionary Francesca Cabrini comes from director Alejandro Gómez Monteverde, whose Sound of Freedom (a shot-in-2018 acquisition) became a $184 million-grossing sensation last summer. Whether the filmmaker is a relative marquee director for the Angel Studios demographic, it's a better debut than After Death ($5 million) and The Shift ($4.3 million). We should no more expect Angel Studios to regularly put out Sound of Freedom-sized hits than we should expect every political documentary to perform like Fahrenheit 9/11 (both films sold the idea that seeing a movie counted as active political engagement). With an A from Cinemascore, this is a solid launch (with possible Easter season legs) by usual Angel Studios standards.
Jia Ling’s YOLO, about a young woman who tries to reverse years of self-imposed social isolation, opened domestically with $840,000 in 200 theaters courtesy of Sony. The Chinese blockbuster is the year’s biggest global grosser at $481 million. Ling’s last movie, Hi, Mom, earned $833 million in 2021, besting Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman ($821 million) as the top-grossing film ever by a solo female filmmaker. Greta Gerwig’s Barbie now has that milestone with $1.45 billion, but let’s see Gerwig’s next film earn over/under $480 million worldwide. So next time someone tells you that Hollywood can’t make female-led biggies because of China (as Lisa Frankenstein finishes with $9.9 million) or Little Mermaid bombed in China because of sexism, tell them to go to hell. After this weekend, Dune Part Two is the third-highest global grosser of 2024 after YOLO, Pegasus 2 ($460 million), both from China.
Love Lies Bleeding may just be another A24 “cool indie genre hit” release (Lionsgate is distributing overseas). The well-received (93% fresh and 7/8/10 on Rotten Tomatoes) crime melodrama about a relationship between a gym manager (Kristen Stewart) and a bodybuilder (Katy O’Brian) earned $167,463 in five theaters for a promising $33,493 per theatre average. It’ll expand to 1,200 theaters next weekend, so we’ll see if it breaks out beyond the arthouse crowd. Quick holdover update: Migration has passed $125 million domestically and $282 million worldwide, while Poor Things has $108 million globally. Bob Marley: One Love now sits with $89 million domestic and $160.5 million worldwide. Madame Web now has $96 million worldwide (that’s bad), while Anyone but You has $212 million (that’s good). Finally, the fourth season of The Chosen has earned — combined — $42.7 million in North American theaters. That’s essentially found money for multiplexes.