Pagusas
Elden Member
LOVED it
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WB is “very very happy” with Dune’s success so far (bodes well for Part 2)
- Thread starter ManaByte
- Start date
Halo is Back
Member
Just saw it. 10/10 what a refreshing cinema experience.
But this is ONLY once you are in the theater and it is on screen for like 2 seconds (it is the fastest title card I can remember seeing). I've not seen a single trailer or even mainstream article mentioning that this is just part of the story prior to it's release. WB is trying a little deceptive marketing which I wouldn't necessarily mind if A. part 2 was already filming/in post or B. Part 1 had an internally satisfying arc and conclusion (which it doesn't). Dune MUST have part 2 for it to work at all IMHO.
TaylorSwiftFan
Member
So far it’s flopping boxoffice-wise but maybe it’ll have legs.
Hari Seldon
Member
I am a Dune book hater, but I really liked this movie. The casting and visuals are great. The movie was good enough to make me overlook my long standing problems with the shroom-Jesus story and appreciate how creative it otherwise is.
ZehDon
Member
What metrics are you using for that statement?
TaylorSwiftFan
Member
The boxoffice to budget ratio metric.
ZehDon
Member
On a budget of USD$165 million, it's sitting at USD$220 million so far. It's been out about four days, is available on HBO Max day-and-date, and has been released during a global pandemic when folks are only just getting used to the idea of going back to the cinema. And you're posting in a thread where the financiers of the film state they're "very very happy" with it's success so far. How is this "flopping" under any definition of the word?
D
Deleted member 1159
Unconfirmed Member
Watched it with my wife Friday night, it was the first time we sat down and watched a 2+ hour movie together since our second kid. Both loved it and need that second half. Made me want to reread the book, it’s been like 20 years for me
LiquidMetal14
hide your water-based mammals
It's a wonder people don't think things through rationally.
All those things you mentioned are factors the research teams do and are fully aware of.
I hope it's enough to get onto the 2nd movie asap.
Cyberpunkd
Member
Visuals were 11/10, but that BZZZZZZZZZZ sounds every second got super annoying very fast.
Punished Miku
Banned
Not necessarily. Remember Battle Angel? That was like 1% of the story.
Expensive, niche sci-fi stuff actually does have to be supported or else it wont get made.
D
Deleted member 1159
Unconfirmed Member
Part 2 has already been greenlit I believe
ThatStupidLion
Member
watched this last night without knowing anything about Dune other than sand worms...
it was pretty solid. really nicely shot movie. the world of Dune certainly feels original. I definitely want more. more than a second part thats for sure. feels like this coulda been a tv epic on HBO. overall the plot seems a bit simple, but that might just be a product of the times of when it was written as a book.
best part is all the world-building aspects...which is actually one of my favorite aspects in media generally speaking. that first book/movie where the audience is introduced to the rules and lore that theyre about to witness. it just holds a certain magical sense of discovery.
it was pretty solid. really nicely shot movie. the world of Dune certainly feels original. I definitely want more. more than a second part thats for sure. feels like this coulda been a tv epic on HBO. overall the plot seems a bit simple, but that might just be a product of the times of when it was written as a book.
best part is all the world-building aspects...which is actually one of my favorite aspects in media generally speaking. that first book/movie where the audience is introduced to the rules and lore that theyre about to witness. it just holds a certain magical sense of discovery.
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manfestival
Member
Watched the movie last night and was on black out mode till watching it. I enjoyed the movie and my brother did too(he doesn't typically care for this stuff). Cannot wait for part 2
Side note: my theater was mostly empty. There were like 4 other small groups there.
Side note: my theater was mostly empty. There were like 4 other small groups there.
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Doom85
Member
Had the opposite experience, easily the largest audience I’ve seen this year outside of Marvel films, and mind you I saw this last night (Sunday) at 7:30 which is usually much lighter in crowds around that time in my experience.
ManaByte
Member
Battle Angel came out right when Disney was buying Fox and didn't have the pandemic handicap that Dune has the benefit of. WB has also greenlit sequels to HBO Max premieres that weren't as successful as Dune (Wonder Woman 1984 for example).
Punished Miku
Banned
Well the end result is still massive disappointment. My brothers and I went to see Battle Angel multiple times just to try and help it do well (and we enjoyed seeing it). Bought it on blu-ray as well. One of the biggest wasted opportunities I can think of in modern film history. The story was barely even started, and was going to do nothing but improve.
I'm really curious to see how Avatar 2 ends up doing now in our post-Marvel, post-pandemic world.
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Burning Blade
Member
It’ll be a crime if Battle Angel doesn’t get a sequel.
Stuart360
Member
A $40mil opening is NOT good for a 165mil blockbuster. Especially because with covid and HBO Max/piracy the film will probably struggle to hit 100mil in the US.
Hopefully the studio takes all that into account though when judging whether to greenlight the sequel. (It was still very dumb not filming both halves back to back imo).
Hopefully the studio takes all that into account though when judging whether to greenlight the sequel. (It was still very dumb not filming both halves back to back imo).
Pagusas
Elden Member
If a sequel was going to happen it would have already. It’s dead. And that’s sad, because while flawed, it had so much potential to work from
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Lunarorbit
Member
This is what I've always thought. It was at a time when 3d was new and exciting again. After avatar the 3d craze never got that hot again. I remember watching mad max in 3d and being so pissed that there were like 2 scenes of 3d.
I have nothing against Cameron or avatar but I really want it to flop. Have a feeling that the crazy water special effects will draw people to see the sequel but I can dream
sol_bad
Member
Being "very happy" is called saving face. Again, if Warner/HBO/AT&T were truly happy with HBO Max's performance they would continue their dual release strategy in 2022.
How many people watched Dune on day 1 on HBO Max, 1.9 million? How much does HBO Max cost, $15usd?
$15 x 1.9 million. That's worth about $28.5 million.
Not very much money at all. Then there are the logistics we can't see, how many of those 1.9 million actually finished the film? That's one metric they can't see with a theatrical release, how many people walked out mid movie. But they can see it with streaming.
I have no idea what metric they would be using to be "happy" with Dunes performance so far on HBO Max.
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Pagusas
Elden Member
my wife actually asked if we could leave about 3/4 of the way through it (we didn’t), then on the car ride home said she wished we had watched it at home so she could have stopped it, lol. So I see your point
Halo is Back
Member
My first thought after watching it was "yea mainstream audiences are not gonna vide with it much" but I loved it and I know it's going to do poorly in America.
Pagusas
Elden Member
yeah, even I didn’t like it but I can appreciate it and hope they get to continue. It feels like what we’d see had traditional movie editing continued passed the 70’s, instead of fast paste modern editing styles. I would have liked it’s pacing/editing style more if I didn’t dislike the Dune story so much, or find the music so bad.
TaylorSwiftFan
Member
Out for 4 days unless you count the 34 countries where it was released for longer than that. Global pandemic and yet there are other movies doing way better. And how many countries are still locked down. Also, HBO Max is available in the US in terms of significant contributor to the worldwide boxoffice. As far as I can see “very very happy” = PR speak.
TaylorSwiftFan
Member
What made you think mainstream audiences would not like it?
sol_bad
Member
I'd personally consider September as COVID pandemic era and then October as post COVID pandemic era. But that's me personally.
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Halo is Back
Member
1. It's long
2. Hard Sci-fi from an old book
3. The visuals/art style is weird as hell (I personally love it though)
4. Story is incomplete and can be confusing at times to a new audience.
5. Not a whole lot of action
PaddyOCanager
Member
1.9 million "first weekend viewership" on HBO Max per Samba TV which places it at #6 on the service for 2020-2021. Falls behind Mortal Kombat (3.8 mill), Godzilla v King Kong (3.6 mill), The Suicide Squad (2.8 mill), WW 1984 (2.2 mill) and Space Jam (2.1 mill).
$225 million ww box office so far, not sure it'll have the legs for the $400 mill you'd like to see in traditional times. However, Mad Max Fury Road is getting a prequel made so.....why not Dune part 2?
$225 million ww box office so far, not sure it'll have the legs for the $400 mill you'd like to see in traditional times. However, Mad Max Fury Road is getting a prequel made so.....why not Dune part 2?
ZehDon
Member
... what? Nothing you've said here contributes in any way to Dune "flopping". The closest you've got is "other movies are doing better". By this metric, every film that isn't Avatar is "flopping"? You clearly have no idea what you're talking about. Is it setting the entire world on fire? No. Is it still doing pretty well, all things considered? Yeah.
TaylorSwiftFan
Member
1. Should I be listing the number of long running popular movies? Because there are many.
2. I don’t know why you added from old book. But Star Wars, Avatar, Interstellar (all long movies as well). You could label the Lord of the Rings as hard fantasy from old book as well.
3. Not sure how. It looks like a big budget movie visuals to me.
4. Ah, like The Lord of the Rings or Star Wars?
5. That I can understand though we have seen that people don’t mind movies with not much action like Joker. That said, I haven’t seen the movie - it could have enough action scenes.
TaylorSwiftFan
Member
True, it could a side story 9 years later. I think it will get a sequel because everything gets a sequel these days.
TaylorSwiftFan
Member
You’re kidding? I told you that the metrics I am going by is Dune’s boxoffice revenue. That’s the only concrete metric we have.
Halo is Back
Member
It's a combination of all five, not just one bro. I asked everyone I knew in my personal life and they had no idea what Dune was or even the movie existed. Dune may be very influential to Sci-fi, but the larger public has no idea what it is. To compare LOTR to Dune seems pretty laughable from what book readers have told me.
ZehDon
Member
What? To quote myself:
So:
Based on box office, Dune is doing fine.
Based on critical reception, Dune is doing fine.
Based on fan reception, Dune is doing fine.
Based on streaming numbers, Dune is doing fine.
Based on word of mouth, Dune is doing fine.
Based on the financiers opinion, Dune is doing "very very" well.
Based on the distributor's comments, Dune is doing fine.
And after seven posts in this thread, literally nothing you've said mildly indicates anyone other than you believes Dune is "flopping". So, to quote myself again,:
If you have nothing meaningful to add, I'm going to stop replying now.
QuantumZebra
Member
The hard part (concept, casting, costumes, design, story adaptation) is out of the way - the sequel(s) should come much faster.
TaylorSwiftFan
Member
In what world does a gross of $220M on a production budget of $165M mean that boxoffice-wise Dune is doing fine? I think that you think that the studio gets all the money from the gross.
TaylorSwiftFan
Member
Star Wars would be a combination of all the above. The only thing I am not sure about is the action. You’re right - LotR cannot be compared because it was the first widely successful high fantasy movie whereas successful sci-fi movies have been a thing for decades.
ZehDon
Member
It's usually around a 60/40 split, so the studio is currently sitting on around $132m and change. It hasn't finished its run, it has terrific word of mouth - especially as a movie to be seen on the big screen - and it hasn't opened everywhere yet. And it's available on streaming day-and-date. So, as I said, is it setting the world on fire? No, but is it doing perfectly fine? Yeah.
TaylorSwiftFan
Member
It’s 60/40 in the US, around 50/50 from international markets and 25/75 from China.
I collect VHS tapes
Member
Expectations were extremely low. Was totally blown away by how good the movie was. Best movie I’ve seen in quite some time. Only regret is watching it on my TV and not theater, but I expected it to be shit.
Cyberpunkd
Member
It's not setting the world on fire, but did we really expect Dune to be a mass-market success? Do we want it watered down to the lowest common denominator?
Let's face it - this is SF most popular series, equivalent to Lord of the Rings of fantasy. But being science-fiction it is way more difficult to understand and experience than Lord of the Rings (Tolkien was putting things in motion starting from 1910s, Herbert's novel is way more rooted in the present when it was published).
I am still a little bit shocked we actually got Lynch's movie, a miniseries, and now this + Jedorovsky's aborted attempt.
Let's face it - this is SF most popular series, equivalent to Lord of the Rings of fantasy. But being science-fiction it is way more difficult to understand and experience than Lord of the Rings (Tolkien was putting things in motion starting from 1910s, Herbert's novel is way more rooted in the present when it was published).
I am still a little bit shocked we actually got Lynch's movie, a miniseries, and now this + Jedorovsky's aborted attempt.