Box office: Dune rises to new heights, while The Chosen slips some more

Interestingly, the weekend's two biggest new releases both feature prophecy-fulfilling messiahs, and they both mark the ends of the current phases of their respective franchises.

Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) leads the masses in Dune: Part Two.

One messianic figure saw his box-office fortunes go up this week, while another saw his go down.

Dune: Part Two—the second half of Denis Villeneuve’s big-screen adaptation of Frank Herbert’s novel about a prophesied rebel leader on a distant desert planet—grossed an estimated $81.5 million this weekend, including preview screenings. That’s the best opening, by far, of any film since October, and one of the 20 best openings of the post-Covid era.

It’s also virtually double the first-weekend take of Dune: Part One, which opened to $41 million in October 2021, at a time when theatres were slowly coming back to life and Warner, the studio behind the film, was sending all of its movies simultaneously to theatres and HBO Max (as their streaming service was called at the time).

Meanwhile, The Chosen Season 4: Episodes 7-8—the final installment in the theatrical release of the fourth season of the popular life-of-Jesus streaming series—grossed just $3.15 million for the weekend and $3.9 million since opening on Thursday.

That was good enough to rank 5th on the chart this week, but the weekend figure was less than the $3.85 million that another “faith-based” film, Ordinary Angels, grossed in its second frame this week, and it was also arguably the lowest opening ever for The Chosen, which has had seven theatrical releases in the past three years.

Interestingly, the two new entries on this week’s chart had a few things in common besides their prophecy-fulfilling protagonists:

• Both films are based on Middle Eastern religions: The Chosen is obviously based on Christianity and goes out of its way to emphasize the story’s original Jewish setting, while Dune borrows heavily from Islam (though the makers of the current films have apparently “erased” some of the story’s Islamic influences).

• Both films mark the end of the current phases within their franchises: The Chosen Season 4: Episodes 7-8 marks the end of the season in question, while Dune: Part Two marks the end of Villeneuve’s adaptation of the first book in Herbert’s series.

• Both films set the stage for sequels, of a sort: The Chosen is going to have three more seasons, while Villeneuve has talked about making one more film—based on the second novel, Dune Messiah—to complete his movie trilogy.

• The sequels will be partly about the subverting of messianic expectations: The Chosen Season 4: Episodes 7-8 ends with Jesus beginning his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, surrounded by people who have no idea that he will die there, while in Dune Messiah, the protagonist ultimately resists his own deification.

All coincidental, of course. But fun to think about, nonetheless.

And now, a few more stats and facts re: this week’s top ten, title by title: