The movie “Dune Part II” by Denis Villeneuve, which stars Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya, won’t be promoted yet due to a dispute among actors.
There’s been a big change to the movie release schedule for November. The eagerly awaited “Dune: Part Two” by Denis Villeneuve was supposed to come out, but it’s been delayed to next year because actors are on strike and can’t promote their work.
The sequel to the big-budget movie made by Legendary and Warner Bros. was originally set to come out on November 3 in North America. Now, it’ll come out on March 15, 2024. This change also pushed back the release of “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” to April 12, 2024, from its original date of March 15.
Additionally, the new release date for the next Godzilla movie caused “Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim,” made by New Line and Warner Bros. Pictures Animation, to be moved from April 12, 2024, to December 13, 2024. This is a shift in the timing of movie releases.
This delay for “Dune: Part Two” is a big setback for this year’s movie schedule due to the actors’ strike. The news isn’t great for movie theater owners. However, things could have been worse. Notably, Warner Bros. is keeping three big December releases on track: “Wonka” on December 15, “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” on December 20, and “The Color Purple” on December 25.
People in the know say that Warner Bros. is dedicated to showing movies in theaters. After all the turmoil caused by the pandemic, they’re being cautious about making big changes, even with the uncertainty brought on by the strikes from the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.
A movie like “Dune,” which has a cast full of stars led by Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya, faces challenges in getting its full box office potential if the actors can’t promote it globally. Legendary, the company behind this high-profile sequel, worked together with Warner Bros. to make this decision. Running a campaign for awards would also be tricky.
Some new faces in the Dune series include Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Christopher Walken, and Léa Seydoux. Returning actors include names like Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgard, Dave Bautista, and Charlotte Rampling.
People in the know say that Legendary couldn’t wait any longer and had to make this change. Warner Bros. would’ve needed to start promoting “Dune: Part Two” seriously by early September. People are hoping that the extra time will let the cast take part in a worldwide marketing effort as originally planned. The movie’s new release date will also come with a full Imax release. March is a great time to release special event movies due to spring break and the Easter holidays.
In 2021, Denis Villeneuve’s first “Dune” movie made more than $402 million worldwide, which is pretty good considering the pandemic and the fact that it was also released on HBO Max. The hope is that the sequel will do even better for various reasons.
Director Villeneuve explained, “Part One is more of a thoughtful movie. Part Two is full of action, an epic war movie. It’s more packed with content. We filmed in all-new places.” He shared this during CinemaCon in April. He wanted to avoid any sense of repetition and created everything new
