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Denis Villeneuve has firmly established himself as a big-name director giving movie-lovers faith in Hollywood’s future. His 2021 sci-fi epic Dune earned a slew of Academy Awards nominations and dominated at the box office, but where does it rank among Villeneuve’s top-grossing movies? 

'Dune' director Denis Villeneuve on the red carpet at the 2021 Venice International Film Festival.
Denis Villeneuve | Stephane Cardinale/Corbis via Getty Images

‘Dune’ had a huge budget and still dominated the box office

Dune’s star-studded cast (including Oscar Isaac, Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Jason Momoa, Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, and Stellan Skarsgård), on-location shooting, and post-production special effects contributed to the cost. Pre-production planning, such as creating the look of the sandworms of Arrakis, also added expenses. The estimated budget ballooned to $165 million, which is the largest in Villeneuve’s career to date. 

The old saying is you have to spend money to make money, and Dune did both. It spent its first two weeks as the No. 1 movie at the box office and earned more than $69 million in 10 days. It made more than $100 million within a month of opening and earned more than $400 million worldwide ahead of the 2022 Oscars.

In short, Dune is a box office success story and a lifelong labor of love for Villeneuve, but where does it rank among the other movies he has directed?

Denis Villeneuve’s top-grossing movies all fall in the sci-fi genre

Dune‘s big opening and Oscar buzz helped it surpass $400 million at the worldwide box office, which places it in the top 350 of all time. It’s the top-grossing movie in Villeneuve’s canon, and the top three all fall into the sci-fi category:

  1. Dune (2021): $400,584,752 gross 
  2. Blade Runner 2049 (2017): $259,352,064 gross 
  3. Arrival (2016): $203,388,186 gross
  4. Prisoners (2013): $122,126,687 gross 
  5. Sicario (2015): $84,997,446 gross 
  6. Enemy (2013): $3,468,224 gross

Aside from Enemy, Villeneuve films have had a solid return on investment at the box office in the last decade. Villeneuve’s earliest works, such as his French-language Canadian movies, didn’t receive wide releases, so we did not include them, but that didn’t make them any less successful among critics.

‘Dune’ isn’t the first Villeneuve movie to earn Academy Award nominations

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‘Dune’: Denis Villeneuve Reveals His Favorite Shot and How It Honors Frank Herbert’s Book

Dune is up for 10 awards at the 2022 Oscars, including best picture, film editing, costume design, visual effects, adapted screenplay, and sound. 

It’s not the first time one of Villeneuve’s films has been in the running for a statuette.

Arrival scored eight nominations (including best picture and best director), winning for sound editing.

Blade Runner 2049 had five nominations, and it won for visual effects and cinematography.

Prisoners earned a nomination for cinematography, Sicario was in the race for cinematography, original score, and sound editing, and Incendies (2010) found itself in the running for best foreign-language film at the 2011 Oscars.

By now it’s clear: Denis Villeneuve knows how to score big at the box office, and he knows how to create films that wow the critics, too.

All box office figures courtesy of Box Office Mojo. Academy Award nominations and wins courtesy of IMDb.

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