Having sailed past $200 million at the global box office with relative ease, landing Warner Bros.’ biggest domestic opening weekend since October 2019’s Joker in the process, it’s looking increasingly likely that Denis Villenuve’s Dune sequel will be officially announced in short order.
The filmmaker wasn’t happy about the sci-fi epic being sent to HBO Max the same day it hit theaters, but a stronger than expected $40 million first frame assuaged many doubts that a day-and-date streaming release would severely impact the movie’s chances of success.
HBO Max has never revealed any official viewing figures, but third-party aggregator Samba TV regularly unveils data from customers using the company’s software. As it turns out, Dune managed to top Zack Snyder’s Justice League in its first weekend on the platform, but not by much.
As per Variety, the latest adaptation of Frank Herbert’s novel drew in 1.8 million subscribers on Samba-enabled televisions, a shade above the Snyder Cut’s 1.7 million. That’s still way behind the 2.6 million garnered by Godzilla vs. Kong, The Suicide Squad‘s 2.8 million and Mortal Kombat‘s 3.8 million, but Dune did earn more money from theaters in its opening weekend than any of those three titles, so it’s hardly going to be looked at as a disappointment.
