Forget sweet and salty. Try sweet and sandy. It's a dish that turned into power food for Timothée Chalamet, star of the hit Christmas movie Wonka — which quietly grossed $624.8 million at the global box office — and now Sand Dunes: Part Two. Last year, the young actor rose to seventh place on the list of highest-grossing stars at the global box office for 2023, up from 33rd in 2022 and 49th in 2021, according to box office tracker The Numbers.
The site bases its annual rankings on films released in that particular year and the previous two years (this means 2021). Sand dunes (calculated in Chalamet's credit). The star is the youngest among the top 10 names on the 2023 list, invalidating the notion that there are no alternatives for actors who could open a film worldwide but are now in their 50s, 60s and 70s (Dwayne Johnson, Robert Downey). Jr., Tom Hanks) or the 80s (Harrison Ford).
Over the weekend of March 1-3, Legendary and Warner Bros. took a breather. A well-deserved sigh of relief when… Sand Dunes: Part Two It opened to a significantly better-than-expected $82.5 million domestically and $100 million overseas for a global start of $182.5 million.
Rival studios think so Sand dunes, which nets $190 million after production incentives and taxes, will almost certainly pass the $500 million break-even benchmark and ultimately earn between $600 million and $700 million. (Hindered by pandemic-era restrictions and the Day-and-Date version on the Max, the first Sand dunes It topped with $433.8 million.)
Sand dunes 2The film's opening is a big win for Legendary, which risked delaying the release of the sequel last fall so far in order to get the cast — which also includes young stars Zendaya, ElvisAustin Butler and Florence Pugh – Available to promote the film once the SAG-AFTRA strike ends. Legendary was intent on broadening the audience, rather than relying solely on die-hard fans of Frank Herbert's classic 1965 sci-fi novel. It appears to work.
The percentage of weekend ticket buyers ages 18-25 jumped from 14% for the first movie to 18% for the follow-up, and from 20% to 28% for 26-35 year-olds, according to EntTelligence, which visited nearly 380 theaters. Across 40 circles. Demos from 18 to 35 are key because they are the most frequent moviegoers.
“We did some testing on some early material for the trailers and how it resonated, and when we had our crew in place, a lot of the numbers absolutely jumped because we let them work and promote the movie,” says Josh Grode, the film's legendary CEO. .
When asked about plans for a third film, Grodd's enthusiastic tone suggested there might be news soon: “We're all actively involved in Sand Dunes: Part Three. That's what I'm going to say now.”
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