How Warner Bros. has sold a sandy sequel
It’s been about two and a half years since Dune brought the on-screen drama of House Atreides’ struggle against its rivals over the control of Arrakis and the off-screen drama of Warner Bros. upending the pre-pandemic movie industry paradigm of theatrical releases by sending the adaptation of Frank Herbert’s novel directly to HBO Max.
Since then, Hollywood has reverted back to bringing most all of its movies to theaters and HBO Max has morphed into Max as Warner Bros. Discovery drastically changed strategies. Some movies have been spiked completely while others have underperformed against expectations. Dune: Part Two hopes to be in the group that has gone on to become box-office successes for the studio.
The movie picks up where the first left off, with Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and his mother Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) still in hiding with a tribe of Fremen on Arrakis following their betrayal by the rival Harkonnens. Paul and Jessica are caught up in a Fremen prophecy involving water and prosperity returning to the sand planet, with Paul also developing a romantic relationship with Chani (Zendaya), a Fremen warrior. Rumors that they survived the assault on House Atreides persist in the rest of the galaxy as well as various parties continue scheming for more power, seeing control of Arrakis as the key to that power.
Like the original, the sequel is written and directed by Denis Villeneuve. Josh Brolin, Charlotte Rampling, Dave Bautista and more return from the first film and are joined by newcomers Christopher Walken, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh and others, some of whom had their roles kept secret until very recently.
So with all that established let’s huff a handful of spice and dive into the sandbox that is the studio’s marketing of the sequel.
announcement and casting
Much had been made in the last part of the campaign for the first movie about how Warner Bros. wasn’t going to greenlight the second part unless the first one did well enough at the box office. That always seemed like an odd and maybe slightly disingenuous threat to make given the alternative is to *not* keep a franchise going, which goes against current Hollywood conventional wisdom.
So it wasn’t surprising when, just five days after the first movie came out with a box-office take of around $40 million domestically when Legendary announced Part 2 was officially moving forward. It was made clear at that time that the movie would get a theatrical release.
Villeneuve was interviewed shortly after that news broke about the pressure he felt to hit the 2023 release date, what he had in mind and how an exclusive theatrical release was an essential element in his agreement.
In early 2022 the director teased a much bigger role for Zendaya in this second installment, which makes sense given the progression of the story.
While on a panel at Cannes in May 2022, Bardem teased how he’d read the script for the film and that fans would be surprised by the skillful way the story had been put together.
Walken was cast in May and Florence Pugh was reported to be considered for the sequel as well, with Seydoux also said to be circling a role in June 2022. Nelson joined in January.
The first day of filming was marked in mid-July of that year.
Chalamet praised his costars in an interview from late 2022 and shared a teaser photo a bit after that.
the marketing campaign: phase one
The first trailer debuted exclusively for those in attendance at CinemaCon in April 2023. Chalamet, Zendaya and Villeneuve were in attendance as well to talk about where the characters are as the story picks up and how things are changing in the sequel, all with the goal of getting exhibitors excited about the film.
A Vanity Fair feature story from that period had Villeneuve talking about what was coming up in the sequel along with a handful of first-look stills.
In early May the first one-sheet was released, showing Paul and Chani standing defiantly at the top of a sand dune, the planet’s massive sun dominating the background. Even more impressive than the visuals is how the designers managed to fit so many names from the cast at the top of the poster.
A few weeks after CinemaCon the first trailer (26.3m YouTube plays) was released for public consumption. There’s plenty of action as well as glimpses at characters both returning and new as it offers glimpses into where Paul and the others are in their journeys. But the centerpiece of the footage is Paul’s first attempt at riding one of the giant sandworms of the planet, a rite of passage for the tribe he’s become part of and one that shows to everyone what his destiny among them truly is.
The second trailer (24m YouTube plays) came out at the end of June. This one focuses on how Paul and the Fremen tribe he’s joined have a mutual enemy, even if they remain wary of one another. There are political machinations unfolding across the galaxy and all while Paul continues to have dark visions of his future and what will come to pass for everyone, all leading to a confrontation with those who are conspiring for control of the planet.
Villeneuve was interviewed about not only this movie but his hopes he’ll be allowed to make a third installment and finish the story arc he’s begun.
the marketing campaign: phase two
About the same time in August 2023 Warner Bros. delayed the movie to April 2024, in part because of the actors’ strike that was pushing everything back and keeping talent off the publicity trail.
Chalamet was profiled by GQ in October as part of the buildup to this movie as well as his starring role in Wonka.
In November the studio changed the release date yet again, this time moving it up to the beginning of March.
The director and much of the main cast attended Brazil’s CCXP in December to get fans there excited and talk about the movie’s story. In a Total Film interview from the same time Villeneuve promised audiences there’d be even more action in this installment than the first movie.
As the third trailer (15m YouTube plays) from mid-December opens, Paul has had another of his prophetic, vision-like dreams before explaining how far back his family’s feud with the Harkonnens truly goes, a feud that has now come to Arrakis. There are many changes afoot as Paul becomes more deeply entrenched in the Fremen tribe while the Emperor and others vie for power, which can only be seized once all of House Atreides has been eliminated. All of that involves giant sandworms, massive landscape explosions and more as alliances are formed and broken, prophecies questions and fulfilled and so much more.
Paul along with Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen (played by Austin Butler) were added as playable characters to Call of Duty III to try and attract the portion of the audience that has stopped going to movies because they spend all their time and money playing video games.
The first movie returned to IMAX theaters for one night only in January to give fans the chance to see it on the big screen again before the sequel came out.
A couple very short featurettes in mid-January were followed by the first actual TV spots, which came out as tickets were going on sale.
Chani and Paul are still defiant but closer to the camera on the next poster, released at the end of January. Another is a more traditional theatrical one-sheet, with the major characters arranged at the top of the poster while a sandworm erupts from the ground on the bottom half.
IMAX then got fans ready for the action by releasing a poster showing more of the sandworm that touted the expanded aspect ratio it would be presented in as well as announcing early fan screenings of the movie.
One other aspect of the campaign IMAX was integral in was the announcement at the end of January that Christopher Nolan’s TENET was coming back for one week with promotions for Dune: Part Two included in the presentation.
The move was reportedly because Nolan is a fan of Villeneuve and wanted to support him but is also amusing for a couple reasons:
First, both Dune and TENET are Warner Bros. releases, but the studio’s handing of TENET during 2020 caused such a rift between it and Nolan that he took his next film to Universal Pictures.
Second, that next film wound up being Oppenheimer, which has been nominated for a number of Academy Awards.
Third, there may be some altruism in play but it’s hard to believe Warner Bros. isn’t also eager to ride the coattails of Oppenheimer’s buzz to try and recoup a few more dollars on TENET.
Anyway…
The studio released an extended sneak preview that includes new footage, scenes we’ve already become familiar with from earlier trailers and comments from the cast and director about the story and where the characters are in this installment.
A couple more short featurettes came out in mid-February introducing the characters played by Pugh and Butler.
By this time the cast was engaged in the very publicity tour that the earlier SAG-AFTRA strike made impossible, stopping in Mexico City, Paris and London, the last one generating not only overwhelmingly positive reactions from attendees but also serving as the venue for confirmation of rumors Anna-Taylor Joy had filmed a super-secret role. That tour culminated in the U.S. premiere in New York City, where the cast talked about filming the sequel, how great their costars were and similar topics.
While they were in New York many of those cast members made the local talk show rounds as well.
overall
Warner Bros.’ decision to delay release until the actors were available for publicity duties seems to have paid off, at least if the tracking estimates of an opening weekend box-office take of $65-8mm turn out to be accurate.
Their inclusion has also made the campaign as a whole that much better. Chalamet and Zendaya being charming, the reveal of Joy’s participation, the old-man energy of Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin…it all adds up to the campaign having a lot more personality than if they hadn’t been able to participate. While Villeneuve has been selling the story and the spectacle, they’ve been selling themselves, and that’s no small thing.
Aside from that, the marketing of the film has sold exactly what those who enjoyed the first one would expect: Lots more discussion of prophecies, alliances being made and broken and a general emphasis on the *drama* of the story in addition to whatever action has been added this time around. It all comes together in a very nice effort that sells the film well, though it likely won’t do much to bring in any new converts to the cause.