Dune: Part Two outstrips Part One at the box office, Timothée Chalamet sets movie star record

Dune: Part Two is a hit. We've known that for weeks. Fans have been eager to return to the planet of Arrakis to see the continuing story of desert messiah Paul Atreides, played by Timothée Chalamet. When you get videos like this going viral, you know your movie is a success:

And now we have the numbers to back up the hype. Dune: Part Two has made $494 million as of this past weekend, and is expected to overtake $500 million by the end of today, according to Variety. The first Dune movie made $431 million in its entire theatrical run, where Part Two still has a long theatrical life ahead of it. It's in its third weekend and still made $29 million. We can assume that executives at Warner Bros. Discovery are jumping for joy, throwing balls of cash at each other in celebration.

On top of being a faster-paced, more propulsive movie than Dune: Part One, Part Two is playing exclusively in theaters, whereas Part One was released in theaters and on the Max streaming service at the same time on account of the pandemic scaring people away from theaters back when the movie was released in 2021. That's surely helped Part Two succeed at the box office. Plus, Part Two pays off everything Part One set up, which is just more satisfying to watch. Now we wait for news of Dune: Part Three.

Timothée Chalamet: Return of the movie star

The success of Dune: Part Two is giving a boost to the career of star Timothée Chalamet, who was already doing very well. His last big movie was Wonka, which came out in December and raked in $628 million at the box office. That means Chalamet has played the lead in the top two highest grossing domestic movies to come out in the past eight months, a feat that hasn't been accomplished since John Travolta played the lead in both Saturday Night Fever and Grease back in the late 1970s, according to IndieWire.

It's a common narrative among Hollywood analysts these days that movie stars are not what they used to be. People will go to the movies to see the continuation of a franchise they like, the story goes, but not to see a star. That's a far cry from the Hollywood of yesteryear, when movies were built around stars like Julia Roberts, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Robin Williams.

There are some holdovers, to be sure: The Rock pulls them in, and Leonardo DiCaprio still pulls down a movie star-sized salary. But in general, I think this narrative is accurate. But maybe things are changing, and maybe the 28-year-old Chalamet can help change them. He is the Lisan al Gaib, after all.

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