It’s from a totally different franchise, but the sentiment still fits: “Here we go again.” On Tuesday, tickets for Dune: Part Three in 70mm IMAX and other premium formats went on sale and, as we saw with The Odyssey, it was kind of a disaster. Crashing websites. Long waits. Sold-out shows. Thankfully, Warner Bros. and director Denis Villeneuve helped a tiny bit by releasing some new footage from the film.
It’s more a TV spot than a trailer, but it’s got some very creepy and intriguing imagery in it. Imagery that will make you think, “Dang, I gotta get those tickets.”
The footage is all pretty fleeting, so we’ll let that live on its own. As for the ticket situation, we can offer a little bit of explanation.
Back in April, IMAX sold select tickets to select screenings of Dune: Part Three in 70mm IMAX. Those, of course, sold out quickly. Then, this week, it announced that even though the film doesn’t officially open until December 18 (along with Avengers: Doomsday), it was offering “Dune Insiders” (aka, people who signed up on their website) screenings on December 14 in 70mm IMAX, December 15 in other IMAX theaters, and then December 17 in other premium format theaters. Tickets for general screenings will go on sale at a later date.
What’s fascinating about this is that Dune will now have several days of screenings ahead of December 18 to try and take the top box office spot from Avengers: Doomsday. That really feels like the main play here. An all-out assault on Marvel Studios. Will Marvel respond?
As with The Odyssey, the incentive of seeing Dune: Part Three in 70mm IMAX is that Denis Villeneuve shot much of the film that way. “Dune: Part Three is the first in the franchise to be shot using a combination of IMAX-certified digital cameras and IMAX Film Cameras,” the IMAX press release reads. “The IMAX Film Cameras deliver nearly 10x the resolution of conventional 35mm film and 3x the resolution of standard, 5-perf 65mm film cameras, creating an unmatched level of detail and immersion.”
Unlike The Odyssey, though, it’s not the whole film this time. “Dune: Part Three features 71 minutes of IMAX’s exclusive 1.90:1 Expanded Aspect Ratio,” the release says. “With the image filling the giant IMAX screen from top to bottom, moviegoers in IMAX theatres will be fully immersed in the action. In select IMAX with Laser and IMAX 70mm Film locations, these sequences will be presented in IMAX’s towering 1.43:1 Expanded Aspect Ratio, delivering the largest image area in the world.”
Do you think Dune: Part Three, with its added screenings, can actually topple Avengers: Doomsday at the box office? Each is going to do incredibly well, a real Barbenheimer-type situation, but we can’t imagine Avengers losing, right?
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