Warner Bros/Legendary Entertainment’s much awaited Dune: Part Two is off and storming the international box office. The Denis Villeneuve-directed sequel began its overseas rollout on Wednesday in 13 markets with $5.2M for the day as the No. 1 Hollywood film in each. Including previews, the offshore cume through yesterday is $7.6M.
Wednesday’s release markets included France, Italy and Korea. In France, the running cume is $2.3M which includes previews. The Allociné rating is an outstanding 4.5 out of 5 stars from audiences (and a fab 4.1 from critics). Including previews, the film is tracking on par with The Batman, 27% over Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, 44% ahead of Villeneuve’s 2021 Dune and 63% over Oppenheimer. IMAX results are 65% ahead of Oppenheimer in terms of admissions. When including the France Tuesday previews, this start for Dune: Part Two is even bigger in IMAX than Avatar: The Way of Water.
In Korea, where local film Exhuma is taking up a lot of oxygen, Dune 2 opened at No. 2 with $1.2M on Wednesday. The launch day is 108% above Dune and 385% ahead of Blade Runner 2049 as well as coming in as the biggest opening day for star Timothée Chalamet and director Villeneuve. It is the biggest IMAX opening day for a WB title. Through Thursday (not included in the totals above) the movie has grossed $2.1M.
In Taiwan, Dune 2 took a 62% market share on Wednesday with $892K to track as the biggest opening day for Villeneuve and Chalamet. It performed 107% higher than Oppenheimer, 172% above The Batman and 229% bigger than Dune Part One.
Italy, which is coming back so nicely overall, gave Dune 2 a 58% share of the Top 5 Films on Wednesday — ahead of Dune by 4% and Mission 7 by 32%. Advance ticket sales for the coming days are great and the movie has been warmly received both by critics and fans.
In Sweden, the early start was $546K, dominating with a 74% share of the Top 5 Films. IMAX repped 12% of the box office. Part Two was also above all comps.
Another 42 markets release today, Thursday, including Germany, Australia, and all of Latin America. Friday will see 16 markets open, including Spain and the UK, for a total of 71 markets in release after the weekend.
We will be updating throughout.