'Dune: Part Two' Is Exactly The Type Of Movie Hollywood Should Make
The past four years have not been kind to the movie business, with a number of factors influencing a dramatic decline in box office across the industry.
The end of the Avengers franchise was a blow to Marvel Studios, Disney, and superhero movies at large, as the next "phase" of Marvel films was focused on less interesting and well-known characters. Government lockdowns then shut down movie theaters in 2020, with some effects lingering into 2021. But even after the pandemic receded and audiences returned to theaters, 2023 was a disaster for most studios, outside of a few specific films.
Barbie, Super Mario Bros., Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse, and Oppenheimer were major financial success stories. And there weren't many others. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny flopped, Transformers flopped domestically, The Flash, Elemental, Ant: Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Little Mermaid, Aquaman, Haunted Mansion. And then perhaps the biggest flop: The Marvels.
READ: ‘The Marvels’ May Be Disney’s Biggest Box Office Flop Yet
It's a rough list of disappointing financial performances. Though there were different explanations for each, there's one thing they all had in common: they weren't particularly good movies.
That's where Dune: Part Two comes in. Despite relatively obscure source material, a low concept story, lengthy running time and a first film that was hit at the box office by a 2021 release date, Dune: Part Two is set to become a financial hit.
Opening to nearly $83 million in an early-March release is impressive by any measure, made even more impressive by the fact that it beat out the Oppenheimer opening weekend, despite that film's hype and "Barbenheimer" cultural moment. So what about Dune: Part Two has grabbed audiences, to the point where it's already passed $200 million at the global box office?
Simple: it's really good.
Anya Taylor-Joy attends the New York Premiere of Warner Bros. 'Dune: Part Two' at Josie Robertson Plaza at Lincoln Center, New York, February 25. (Photo by Anthony Behar/Sipa USA)
‘Dune’ Shows Hollywood Can Put Out Quality With The Right Ingredients
It's been extensively covered how the movie business turned itself more towards activist filmmaking after 2016, and even more so after 2020. Making good, quality films progressively took a back seat to churning out movies that hit arbitrary quotas or desperately forced a preferred political message.
Casting decisions became a political statement; even animated movies directed at children were injected with Hollywood's political views. Somehow, the inevitable backlash to this unnecessary incursion took the entire industry by complete surprise.
Animated films that proudly touted their "representation" or "inclusion" flopped, losing hundreds of millions of dollars. Primarily for the once apolitical Disney.
Some movies, like Barbie, took the extreme step of hiding its political viewpoint from the marketing. Others though, proudly wore their viewpoints on their sleeves. Indiana Jones, for example, barely hid its desire to move Phoebe Waller-Bridge into Indiana Jones' fedora in upcoming films. Unsurprisingly, audiences tuned out.
Dune: Part Two though, avoided these issues, with a priority clearly placed on exceptional filmmaking, visuals, sound design and casting. And it succeeded. Even if there are political undertones that could be read into the plot, nothing about it is forced down audiences' throats. It's good, high quality storytelling by a highly accomplished director with an excellent cast, that somehow cost $50 million less to produce than Disney's disastrous The Little Mermaid remake.
Why is this so hard for the industry to do consistently?
Focusing On The Wrong Things
While Madame Web is a 2024 release, it has much in common with the 2023 Hollywood slate. A director with little experience, a cast that seemed desperately uninterested in the material and laughable visual design…it's a starter kit for a financial disaster. And sure enough, it was.
It might be easier said than done to recreate the Dune playbook, but Hollywood has to try.
Dune's Denis Villeneuve has shown the industry what can be done with the right ingredients, focusing on the right priorities, and executing the right way.
The real question is, will Hollywood learn from it, or keep going down the path to financial ruin while protecting its ideology?