Dune got off to a promising start last night earning a boffo $17 million sans HBOMax which is way better than the $13 million I expected. That’s much better than the $13 million earned by Space Jam: A New Legacy (Also with Zendaya, natch!) and the $11 million first Friday of Godzilla vs Kong earlier this year. We could see the movie matching my $34 million prediction but if the debut doesn’t get damaged by HBOMax, we could see a $45 million debut. Hopefully the strong reviews and word of mouth (An A- score on Cinemascore) can keep the movie under the “hit” status as the industry really needed another overperforming movie after Venom: Let there be Carnage (Which could surpass Black Widow for second biggest hit of the year this coming weekend), the solid but not spectacular performance of No Time to Die and last week’s superb $49 million debut of Halloween Kills (Which fell 80% from its stupefying $22 million opening day).
Also, if the movie continues to overperform, we may see a definite yes to this question. Will Dune become the next Lord of the Rings? That’s an answer for the next week or so
Mathew's Entertainment stuff 