Box office: Dune exceeds expectations with its number one finish

The industry seemed concerned about how Dune would do this weekend given the fact that it was opening in theaters and debuting on the HBO Max streaming at the same time but the pricey sci-fi epic managed to open ahead of expectations and continued October’s streak of solid openings.

Dune grossed $40.1 million over the weekend and the good news is that it debuted ahead of its $30 million tracking figure. Even though the film a Legendary Entertainment release, declined 22% on Saturday from its $17.5 million Friday, it still performed well enough to indicate that the film was not frontloaded by sci-fi fans or fans of Frank Herbert’s novel. Strong pre-sales showed that Dune was likely to overperform this weekend but it was just a matter of how much it would overperform. Dune also skewed surprisingly young this weekend which also benefitted the film as younger moviegoers are consistently showing they are willing to go to their local movie theater during the pandemic. The bigger news for Dune is how well did it do on HBO Max? As of now, per Samba TV, Mortal Kombat had the best debut for a Warner Bros. release on streaming with 3.8 million households watching the film during its opening weekend. Can Dune top that? A part of me says no and that’s only because I think more moviegoers were willing to catch Dune on the big screen rather than watching it home. After all the time and debate, we can call Dune’s opening weekend a success. Overseas, Dune took in $47.4 million, aided mostly by its debut in China. As of this writing, Dune has grossed $220.7 million worldwide. BTW, Dune is also Warner Bros’. highest opening so far during their day-and-date hybrid release strategy.

Dropping 71% in its second weekend is Halloween Kills which grossed $14.5 million. Horror films always suffer steep weekend two drops and Halloween Kills is no exception. The good news is that the $20 million film has already grossed $73.1 million domestically and $90.9 million globally. Throw in the business the film is doing on Peacock, Blumhouse is more than happy with how the movie is doing. Halloween Kills will likely see a slim decline in the coming days with Halloween falling on Sunday so it still has a shot at a $100 million domestic finish.

In third place, we have No Time To Die which grossed $11.8 million. That’s a decline of 50% which is another steep drop for Daniel Craig’s last outing as Bond. As we have previously stated, Bond films have always performed better overseas and this one is no exception. No Time To Die has the distinction of being the second film to clear $500 million globally after Fast 9 this year. The film isn’t going to come close to breaking even at this point but it’s performing as well as could considering the circumstances. Domestically, the film has grossed $120 million to date.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage takes the fourth place spot with a gross of $9.1 million. That’s a decline of 45% which is good considering all of the competition surrounding it. Domestically, the film has grossed $181.8 million and a $200 million domestic finish is still in the cards. Overseas, the film took in an additional $38.3 million to bring its global tally to over $350 million.

Rounding out the top five is Ron’s Gone Wrong with a gross of $7.3 million. It’s not an opening that Disney/20th Century Studios will brag about considering other family animated films have opened higher during the pandemic such as Paw Patrol, The Addams Family 2, and The Boss Baby: Family Business. All of those films also debuted day-and-date on PVOD and still managed to do better business. At the end of the day, Ron’s Gone Wrong won’t be much of a thought after this weekend.

What are YOUR thoughts on this weekend’s box office?