Hollywood Is Banking on Dune: Part Two to Revive the Blockbuster Experience
Theater operators hope the science fiction sequel’s star power and epic visuals will draw viewers away from streaming—and persuade them to see more in-person films.
Timothée Chalamet in Dune: Part Two.
Photographer: Niko Tavernise/Warner Bros.
Since the beginning of the year, the business of cinemas has been a shell of what it was 12 months ago, when the blockbuster releases of Avatar: The Way of Water and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania generated billions of dollars at the global box office. Although films with relatively modest budgets such as Paramount Pictures’ Mean Girls and Bob Marley: One Love have recently outperformed expectations, it’s mostly been a desert for big-budget megahits in 2024. Enter Dune: Part Two, the swashbuckling-in-the-sand sequel opening on March 1 that cinema owners are hoping will jolt the box office back into gear.
“Everywhere I go, everyone’s always asking me, ‘When’s Dune opening? When’s Dune opening?’ We really need that first blockbuster to start the year, as blockbusters fuel ticket sales for other movies, and I think Dune 2 is going to be it for us,” says Bob Bagby, chairman of the National Association of Theatre Owners and chief executive officer of the 100-year-old B&B Theatres chain. B&B’s ticket presales for the sequel are the best since the Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour concert movie, released in October, Bagby says.