Theater Counts: Dune blasts into 4,071 theaters

February 29, 2024

After two weeks as the most widely-available film in North America, Madame Web will take a backseat this week to the highly anticipated sci-fi epic feature, Dune: Part Two. The follow-up to 2021’s Dune, Dune: Part Two is set to begin its theatrical run in 4,071 movie houses, including IMAX and 70mm-format releases. That’s down a little from its predecessor, which debuted in 4,125 locations.

The sequel is once again directed by Denis Villeneuve, and brings back Timothée Chalamet as Paul, the exiled Duke of House Atreides, along with his love interest, Chani, played by Zendaya. The film follows Paul while on a path of revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family. The original installment scored $110 million from North American viewings, while charting nearly $325 million from international markets. The sequel is expected to go well beyond that, given that the market has grown since October, 2021, and that Warner Bros. isn’t making this installment simultaneously available on their streaming platform. Watch this space for our final prediction tomorrow morning. The Dune franchise is based on the 1965 novel Dune, written by Frank Herbert.

Madame Web has secured just short of $37 million from domestic showings since its release on Valentine’s Day, when it opened alongside box office chart topper, Bob Marley: One Love. As of Sunday, Madame Web had taken in approximately $42 million from overseas markets, with China and South Korea still to release in March.

Rounding out the top five this week is Bob Marley: One Love, occupying the second place spot with 3,390 locations. That film is now closing in on $75 million in domestic earnings and has dominated the box office charts every day except for one since its February 14th release. The aforementioned Madame Web falls to third this week, but still widely available in 3,116 venues. Coming in fourth is last week’s newcomer in Hilary Swank’s true-life drama, Ordinary Angels, retaining its count of 3,020 cinemas from its debut. Lastly, despite losing 782 theaters this week, Argylle clocks in with 2,278 theaters.

Looking ahead to next week we see the release of two new wide releases. The largest of these is another franchise favorite in the way of Kung Fu Panda 4 with the latest sequel expected to make its debut in approximately 3,900 locations. The film starring Jack Black as the titular character, Po hopes to add to the franchise’s worldwide total of $1.82 billion. Also arriving to theaters next week is the Jeff Wadlow supernatural horror film, Imaginary. That movie will open in approximately 3,000 movie houses.

Theater Counts for March 1

Estimates for March 8

Filed under: Theater Counts, Dune