Dune: Part Three has already broken an IMAX record, and the film is still almost two months away from release. It is simply amazing that people have not waited for reviews or to hear audience reactions. They just went ahead and secured their tickets. Looks like Denis Villeneuve has earned quite a bit of trust.
London’s BFI IMAX sold 33,000 advance tickets for Dune: Part Three during the first 24 hours of sales. Staggering, if you think about it. But more importantly, this brought in more than £880,000 and created a new first-day presale record for the cinema. The previous record belonged to Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, which sold around 28,000 tickets and made £750,000 during the same period. British Cinematographer. Villeneuve has officially defeated Nolan in a battle involving enormous cameras, very loud sound systems and people fighting over the best seat in the cinema. I suppose it was always going to be one of those two.
Dune: Part Three arrives internationally from 16 December, with its North American release following on 18 December. Timothée Chalamet returns as Paul Atreides alongside Zendaya, Florence Pugh, Jason Momoa, Rebecca Ferguson and Javier Bardem. Robert Pattinson has also joined the cast, just in case the film needed another famous person looking deeply troubled in expensive clothing.
The story takes place nearly 20 years after Paul became Emperor. At this point, his rule has created consequences that cannot be solved by riding another sandworm and hoping everyone becomes distracted. Oh no, this record tells us something more interesting than people simply being excited about another Dune film. You see, audiences already know that the cinema matters to this franchise. Arrakis felt enormously expansive. The worms looked like they could swallow the building, and Hans Zimmer’s score made the seats feel as though they were developing their own pulse. Now, you could watch the films at home. But I think we can all agree that something would be missing.
And people clearly agree because 33,000 of them bought tickets for one cinema in a single day. Some will have booked their seats weeks away from the release date just to make sure they can watch the film in IMAX 70mm. That level of planning is as serious as it gets for a story about spice, politics and people who refuse to have a normal family conversation.
Bringing audiences back to cinemas has been the main conversation for Hollywood over the years. And this has happened because ticket prices are high, streaming offers convenience and many films reach the home screen shortly after leaving theatres. So, watching something at home in your pyjamas does sound rather appealing.
But every now and then, a film arrives when living in the moment outweighs convenience.
This is where Dune has succeeded. And rightly so. Because here, audiences are not only paying to discover what happens to Paul and Chani. They are paying for the screen, the sound and the opportunity to feel everything that comes with the desert. But that does not mean every film should be three hours long and filmed with a camera that requires its own transport arrangements. At the end of the day, cinema must offer something that a television cannot easily replace. For Dune: Part Three, the scale forms part of the story.
As always, record-breaking presales do not guarantee that the film will be fabulous. The truth is that audiences could leave disappointed, confused or wondering whether Paul needed to make everything quite so complicated. But Villeneuve has delivered twice before, and fans seem willing to trust him with the final chapter of his trilogy. And the 33,000 tickets bought in 24 hours certainly proves that. Its an absolute hype.
People have decided that Dune: Part Three belongs in the cinema before the film has even arrived. And if Hollywood wants audiences to keep leaving home, perhaps this is the lesson.
Do not simply give them another film.
Give them something that looks ridiculous on a smaller screen.
