'Dune Part Two: Five Big Winners From An $181 Million Worldwide Box Office Blowout

Or, why the debut is good news for Austin Butler, Imax and 'Venom 3'.

As expected, the final domestic ($82.5 million) and worldwide ($180.5 million) opening weekend for Dune Part Two turned out to be slightly larger than initially estimated. Yes, studios often underestimate on Sunday when the grosses are already in the win column, so they can then boast on Monday that the figure was even better than hoped, but the good news is good news. The film’s $20.3 million Sunday gross was slightly above its $20.2 million raw Friday (sans the $12 million in previews) gross, showing that the film wasn’t remotely frontloaded and/or grew as word of mouth spread over its initial few days. So, with the initial dust (or sand) cleared, which people and parties came out smelling sweetest in the aftermath? Obviously, Denis Villeneuve is now sitting alongside Chris Nolan, Jordan Peele and Quintin Tarantino as marquee filmmakers. Timothée Chalamet is obviously going to be treated like the next Leonardo DiCaprio, while AMC will likely triple-down on goofy in-theater merchandise. But I wanted to dig a little deeper and see the impact, from boosting non-tentpoles to varnishing Warner Bros.’ reputation as a safe place for A-level filmmakers to spend tentpole bucks on personal event films, of a best-case-scenario debut for the year’s first outright blockbuster.