Warner Bros. Moves ‘Dune: Part Two’ to 2024, Rest of 2023 Schedule Stays
Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides in Warner Bros.’ Dune: Part Two.
Warner Bros. Pictures has announced the upcoming Dune: Part Two will be moving from its November 3, 2023, into March 15, 2024. Denis Villeneuve’s new film thus becomes the latest victim of the dual WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike, both of which have not yet ended. The rest of the 2023 schedule for the legacy studio stays on their current dates, including Wonka, Aquaman and the Last Kingdom, and The Color Purple.
In addition, The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim leaves its April 12 date in favor of December 13, 2024; meanwhile, Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire will now open on April 12.
The move comes as the WGA has turned out to be a tougher negotiator than the studios were probably expecting; the offer they extended on August 11, which they apparently thought was quite reasonable, was not met with the same level of enthusiasm on the other side of the table. From what we can tell, the studios expected the deal with the writers to close by Labor Day, and hoped to bring on that leverage to negotiate a deal with SAG-AFTRA, and maybe get the industry back on its feet by the beginning of October.
Whether that will still be the case or not, remains to be seen, but with the delay of Dune: Part Two, Warner Bros. is showing that they are not confident they will have their giant ensemble available to promote the movie this fall. Even if by mid-October the deal is closed and actors are allowed to take part in the marketing push, it would be too little too late for Dune. By delaying it to March they are making sure they can at least count on Timothée Chalamet, Florence Pugh, and Zendaya to pop up on everyone’s TikToks and raise some awareness. Unfortunately, though, this means the film will not be eligible for the 2024 Academy Awards.
By placing it in March, however, Warner Bros. may have also shot themselves in the foot. The third month of 2024 is bringing in some big guns from most of the major studios, including Univerals’s The Fall Guy and Pixar’s Elio on March 1, Dreamworks’ Kung Fu Panda 4 and Paramount’s A Quiet Place: Day One on March 8, Disney’s Snow White on March 22, and the new Ghostbusters: Afterlife sequel from Sony and Bong Joon-ho’s Mickey 17 on March 29. Now, some of these titles, like The Fall Guy and Snow White are subject to delays due to the inability to do reshoots over the past few months and, well, whatever PR disaster Rachel Zegler continues to bring to Disney’s doorstep before March. Mickey 17 will also likely move, as it’s coming from Warner Bros., who will not want to compete against itself.
Whatever the case, if anyone is happy about this move, is MGM, whose Challengers will be able to use Dune: Part Two to push their Zendaya-led Challengers, which was just pushed back from its September date to April 26, 2024.
The news also comes out as Empire Magazine announced their next issue will be focused on the Denis Villeneuve film; look forward to their coverage starting tomorrow.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
