Dune: Part Two has hit movie venues as this year’s biggest Hollywood hit, a potential boon for theater businesses including
AMC Entertainment Holdings
and
IMAX.
Warner Bros. Discovery’s
sequel to 2021’s Dune: Part One earned $32.2 million in ticket sales through the Friday night leading into its opening weekend, according to data from box-office tracker
Comscore.
Those opening-day results, which also include Thursday-night previews, smoked 2024’s previously most lucrative debut, Bob Marley: One Love, which earned about $14 million through its opening Friday night and just $28.7 million over its entire opening weekend, according to Comscore.
Friday’s numbers put director Denis Villeneuve’s new sci-fi epic on track to earn at least $70 million through its first weekend in theaters, Comscore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian said in an email to Barron’s. That’s more than the $65 million that Warner had projected the film would earn through the weekend.
“With the year-to-date box office running some 20% behind 2023 heading into this weekend, this blockbuster-style debut is the kind of momentum-starting that theater owners have been patiently waiting for since the start of the year,” Dergarabedian said.
Movie theater company AMC closed Friday at $4.36, down 29% from the start of the year. IMAX, which provides technology to theaters and other entertainment businesses, closed at $16.87 on Friday, up 12% from the beginning of the year. The S&P 500 rose about 8% over that time.
This year’s top-grossing film so far has been Wonka, also released by Warner and starring Dune lead Timothée Chalamet, which debuted in December. It has earned $81.8 million between Jan. 1 and Feb. 28, according to Comscore.
Write to Jacob Adelman at jacob.adelman@barrons.com
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