That's a relative metric so it doesn't mean much. You have to look at the hard numbers:


production budget for Dune: 165 million + at least 50 million for marketing.

US box office so far: 41 million
International box office so far: 182 million

Keep in mind that the studio doesn't get all of that money. In the US the studios split the ticket sales with the movie theaters. It's usually about a 50/50 split or a 55/45 split. For international movie theater operators, they get a significantly higher cut of the ticket sales.

So yes, it's a mediocre box office performance.

I don't think it has been released everywhere yet. Wasn't it due for a November release in Australia and a few other countries?

I think the bottom line here is that the success on HBO Max saved this franchise and opened the door for the second part to be made.

Just read this online,

"Samba TV statistics acquired by Variety state that Dune was viewed on HBO Max's platform by a whopping 1.9 million US households during its opening weekend period. This is all the more impressive considering Dune's streaming performance across its opening weekend beat releases with a (supposedly) wider audience cache, such as Zack Snyder's Justice League which was viewed by 1.8 million."

Quite a fascinating story here,

https://www.indiewire.com/2021/12/ridley-scott-refused-direct-dune-mexico-city-1234682693/

I read Dune for the first time about 4 months ago. I don't get what all the fuss is about.

I am currently watching the 1984 movie. it seems fine, I don't get the sonic stuff and it has some 80's camp, but so far it is a fine movie. A bit heavy on the Princess Irulan voiceovers.

I will probably watch the new one when it is available to rent for less.

PS: It is cool to see all the actors that got a lot bigger over the late 80's and 90's in other types of roles in the film.

I am about an hour into the movie.

It is a little heavy on ALL the voiceovers

The second half of the movie is moving too quick, in comparison to the book.

That was a weird ending

The voiceovers bug some people but I never had a problem with it.

Concerning the second half, keep in mind that the theatrical release of the Lynch film is just barely over 2 hours of running time so it's not surprising at all that the pacing was rushed compared to the book. The new Dune film has a running time of 2.5 hours and it only covers the first half of the book.

Different strokes for different folks and all that jazz but one thing that can't be disputed is that the novel has made a deep impression with many readers over the world since the 1960's. If it hadn't it simply would have become just another long forgotten sci-fi novel along with the rest of the great majority of scifi novels that have been written.

It was a lot closer to the books than Lynchs.Weirding way was an advanced Martial arts and sign language in the new movie like the books.Lynch,s was the voice modules to produce weaponry..

I don't know if it is 100% confirmed but based on some sources I've read, the "Weirding Way" as portrayed in the Lynch film was an attempt by the producers to make the movie more like Star Wars with the use of "laser guns".

I just watched it (finally) and was very impressed. The casting was excellent and I liked how it stayed much closer to the book’s guidelines than the Lynch film (especially!) and the 2000 SciFi miniseries. A few scenes I would have liked to have seen were the Heighliner spacefolding, the ceremonial hand-washing, and the banquet at the palace in Arrakeen. The first just to see the visuals, the second because it was one of the few where Jessica took center stage, and the last because it showed how much Leto hated politics but realized the necessity, and depended on Jessica’s guidance. Plus, I always liked the “Review, friends - troops long past review” poem he recited.

To me the most glaring omission were the Guild Navigators..Missing the Emperors initial meeting with them as in Lynches was also a weird one.

There's no competition here at all. In the Lynch film, it's a magnificent sequence that exudes mystery and awe with not only the Lynchian visuals but also the brilliant music by Toto.

Quite frankly I was really disappointed with how short and understated that same sequence was in the Villeneuve film.

If I hadn't seen the Lynch version, I would have thought that the Spice was just a drug that got you a little bit high. There's not much to criticise about Villenueve's Dune, but this IMO is one of them.

I still haven't seen this film--cannot find a way to stream legally without paying less than 20 bucks yet. I think the drug thing is to resonate with the current generation who thinks drugs and getting high is cool, which is sad--because it isn't--but more so because this sounds like this deprives the audience of essential lore.

Yes, I find it quite ironic that the Lynch film was much shorter but yet explained in much better detail the importance of melange in the empire than the Villeneuve film did.

Here are my thoughts on some of your comments about the movie and why I think Villeneuve downplayed or omitted them.



Because the meeting really wasn’t important to moving the story along. Does it really matter WHY Shaddam IV set Leto up to fail and made sure that he did? The book itself gave at least 3 reasons - the Guild’s unease over the availability of spice, the Emperor’s fear of Leto’s growing popularity in the Landsraad, and the thought of a Fremen fighting force that rivaled the Sardaukar under the command of a man with the backing of the Landsraad.



It would have been nice to see it, but like the previous quote I just don’t think it was important when it came to the big picture.





I’m betting that there will be no mention of the Water Of Life in part 2 - no drowning a stunted Maker to get it, no Sayyadina changing the Water from a deadly poison to the psychoactive drug the Fremen partake of after the changing ritual, and also gaining the racial memories of all the previous Sayyadinas. The Spice will take the place of the Water Of Life, and Paul reacted to it the way he did because of who he is and who he’ll be.



The movie was made for people familiar with the book so I think a lot of things that were explained in the previous attempts at telling the story were left out because they already know it. Those who don’t can either ask someone who does or read it themselves. 😁

Yes there are things that were included that wasnt in the origianl film.The various points to the Bulls that killed Letos dad for one..
We did see some Guild representatives when the official party arrived to pass on the contract.Navigators and the Guild had a huuuge interest on Spice production as they were the ones who could transport the various planets around the known universe..Playing just on Pauls journey is one dimensional if it doesnt show the full story on "why" the Spice was important to all the houses.

I disagree with the notion that the movie was made for people who read the book. Most people, by a long way, have not read the book. I think the oversights were just that. Oversights brought on by the people doing the writing being so familiar with the ideas that they kind of assumed the ideas somehow are there without explanation.

Testing it on people not familiar with the book is useless because they don't know there is anything to "get".

It is in a way, especially if the movies end with part 2. If the franchise keeps going, there’ll be some backsplaining necessary when God Emperor Of Dune gets here. Unless they just leave out the whole Tleilaxu working on synthetic spice angle.