The global box office haul for the science fiction sequel Dune: Part Two gets even closer to $1 billion as it passes a major milestone.

Dune: Part Two has passed a huge global milestone at the box office. The movie, which is a sequel to Denis Villeneuve’s 2021 hit Dune, concludes that movie’s adaptation by bringing the second half of the classic 1965 Frank Herbert novel of the same name to the screen. Alongside returning stars such as Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides and Zendaya as Chani, the movie adds a new ensemble that includes Florence Pugh as Princess Irulan and Austin Butler as Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen.

Per Deadline, the Dune: Part Two box office has pushed past $700 million in the global marketplace during its ninth weekend in theaters. This is a substantial improvement over the original 2021 movie, which ended up earning $407.6 million worldwide by the time its theatrical run concluded. The sequel is still roughly $300 million away from the coveted billion-dollar mark, which no movie has reached so far in 2024, as the sci-fi epic is the No. 1 title of the year.

Could Dune: Part Two Make $1 Billion?

The Hit Sci-Fi Movie Still Has Quite A Way To Go

As it passes this huge milestone, it remains to be seen if the Dune: Part Two billion-dollar prospects will come to fruition. The movie will face some major challenges in passing that particular financial milestone, as the summer movie season will start to heat up in its tenth weekend. That weekend will see the release of the Ryan Gosling action-comedy The Fall Guy, with the competition in the following weekends including Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, IF, and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, which will all likely begin to edge the sequel out of theaters.

The sci-fi sequel is also seeing diminishing returns as the weeks go by. It has already sunk to seven-digit domestic weekends with a total of $1.89 million in its ninth weekend, as the number of theaters it was playing in dwindled from 2,014 to 1,334. Precedent also reveals that the movie needs to show strong retention to pass $1 billion. Below, see how the Dune: Part Two release compares to the first nine domestic box office weekends of the 2023 Oppenheimer, which had a similarly strong pull in both domestic and international markets but struggled to cross the billion-dollar mark:

Oppenheimer
Dune: Part Two

Weekend 1
$82.5 million

Weekend 2
$46.7 million
$46.2 million

Weekend 3
$29.1 million
$28.5 million

Weekend 4
$18.8 million
$17.6 million

Weekend 5
$10.7 million
$11.3 million

Weekend 6
$8.2 million
$7.4 million

Weekend 7
$5.7 million
$4.3 million

Weekend 9
$2.09 million
$1.89 million

Worldwide Total
$971.6 million
TBD

While the 2023 movie did pull ahead slightly thanks to a strong week-over-week hold, the two titles are still essentially neck and neck. However, though Dune: Part Two could very well follow in Oppenheimer‘s footsteps and pass the $900 million threshold, it ultimately seems unlikely that it will zoom past it. This means that, while the sequel is undoubtedly a smash hit, it will probably not be a billion-dollar title unless a subsequent re-release helps push it over that line.