Dune fever is sweeping the nation. Between an impressive opening weekend and stellar reviews (not to mention one particularly enthusiastic fan becoming the Lisan al Gaib by riding a homemade sandworm through a theater lobby), director Denis Villeneuve’s take on Frank Herbert’s sci-fi classic appears to be exactly what audiences needed after getting burnt out on half-baked franchise films. But aside from showing that studios should place their faith in filmmakers with genuine vision again when it comes to approaching their biggest properties, Dune 2’s success also brings into question the methods that have become so commonplace for modern blockbuster production. Specifically, why do so many of these movies cost so much more but look so much worse than Dune?
Few would argue that Dune’s visuals aren’t a remarkable technical achievement. The first film even won Oscars for its visual effects, cinematography, and production design. Villeneuve’s take on Arrakis and the wider Dune universe is about as massive in scope as is possible with the technology available. Even though it’s not the first time that Herbert’s novel has been adapted for the big screen, this new Dune is one of the only recent blockbusters this side of James Cameron’s Avatar franchise that feels like it’s been designed from the ground up to fully transport the audience into a world they haven’t seen before. The scale of the visuals and the artistic commitment to making a movie where it feels essential to experience it in theaters has led to audiences filling up IMAX screenings at 3:15 in the morning.
Dune: Part 1 was released back in 2021 with a $165 million price tag, which is actually on the low end when it comes to comparable films of that year. Most Marvel features, including 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, Black Widow, Eternals, and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, cost at least $200 million seemingly by default. Other big franchise movies that year like F9 and No Time to Die were also in the $200-300 million range. We’re not saying any of these movies are necessarily bad because of how much money was spent on them, but when you look at most of them compared to Dune, it’s not hard to feel that not all of the money appears to have been put up on screen.
Dune: Part 2 cost a little more, coming in at $190 million. The budget uptick between movies appears to be largely COVID-related, at least according to Mary Parent, a producer on both films. When asked in an interview with The Wrap about how issues caused by the pandemic affected the sequel’s production, she had this to say: “Just the cost of goods in general and the amount of time to get them was certainly longer… you’re right, it was definitely something that that [sic] we had to contend with big time.” Part 1’s principal photography took place in mid-2019, before the pandemic, so it appears that Part 2’s budget, even with a more stacked cast including new to the franchise stars like Florence Pugh, Austin Butler, Christopher Walken and Anya Taylor-Joy, would likely be even closer to the first film’s if COVID wasn’t a factor.
Yet even with its production concerns, Villeneuve was able to deliver a maximalist blockbuster experience at a more frugal cost than most of his contemporaries. For an example of another movie currently in theaters alongside Dune, Matthew Vaughn’s latest spy action film Argylle cost $200 million, but doesn’t exactly look… great. That movie also has a stacked cast and a name director, but its aesthetics haven’t made a good impression. When looking at these two films side by side, serious questions must be asked about why these movies cost as much as they do – especially since Argylle is most definitely not making its money back in theaters (it has a $92.5 million worldwide gross as of this writing). What was the thinking that went into assigning that kind of budget to this kind of movie? Certainly a goofy spy caper starring Bryce Dallas Howard and Sam Rockwell could have been made for a fraction of the cost that it takes to produce a two-and-a-half-hour space opera that takes place on a different planet?
Now, not every filmmaker is Denis Villeneuve, granted, but even with that caveat it’s becoming harder and harder not to get the sense that blockbuster productions are spending money that they shouldn’t have to. The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s VFX problems involving soul-crushing crunch time and poor management have led not just to unionization efforts but larger conversations about how many blockbusters have put too much stock into the “fix it in post” line of thinking. Fickle producers and directors who don’t have as much expertise in VFX as they should have been struggling to figure out exactly what they want these movies to be during principal photography, often leading to massive reshoots and/or constantly changing aspects of their films in the editing suite up until the last minute. This exacerbates costs while not leaving enough time for the visuals to cook because they’re so frequently being redone.
Consider The Flash’s hysterically poor (and seemingly unfinished) VFX work on a $220 million budget, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania looking like a collection of AI-generated wallpapers despite costing $193 million before post-production or marketing spend, or Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny having muddy photography and middling VFX on a $295 million price tag. All of these movies cost substantially more than either Dune installment but look far worse, and given that none of them have even come close to profitability, this situation of overspending on features only to wind up with subpar-quality visuals is simply unsustainable. The resources and production muscle being used on these films are quite frankly being wasted, and that’s not exactly a comment on their quality (although it’s not not one either.)
Denis Villeneuve delivering Dune’s spectacle on a reasonable budget should be a wake-up call for filmmakers and studios everywhere. There is no more excuse for undercooked movies that cost obscene amounts, especially when what has been drawing audiences into theaters in the past few years has increasingly been movies that buck this trend. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, trusting filmmakers who actually know what they want and are given the space to approach their projects without fear of compromising their artistic vision often leads not just to better and better-looking films, but also films that stand a stronger chance of turning a profit in theaters. As Dune: Part 2 continues to mop up at the box office, it’s a lesson that Hollywood can no longer afford not to learn.
Carlos Morales writes novels, articles and Mass Effect essays. You can follow his fixations on Twitter.
