Previously AMC, and now the Irish Film Classification Office, have confirmed that Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Three” is set to clock in at 151 minutes (2hrs 31mins).
That makes it the shortest film of the “Dune” trilogy behind the first at 155 minutes (2hrs 35mins) and the second at 166 minutes (2hrs 46mins). The new film boasts more than an hour of footage shot for IMAX.
The shorter length is expected as “Dune Messiah” is easily the shortest book in Herbert’s novel series and only a little over one-third the word count of the original.
It’s expected that Villeneuve is taking creative liberties with the material, much more so than the original two films, and will potentially be incorporating elements of the subsequent novel “Children of Dune” into the narrative.
The runtime comes as advance sales numbers for the film’s IMAX release are staggering. The site 70mmTracker.com watches the seats at all 34 IMAX 70mm film theaters in the US and Canada shows that only 448 of 29,826 of the best seats are still open at opening weekend shows.
GLobal Box-Office reports that the film crossed the $25 million mark in pre-sales at the domestic box office, 48 days before its release – charting ahead of “The Odyssey” and making a $120 million domestic debut possible.
London’s BFI IMAX sold 33,000 advance tickets in 24 hours, setting a first-day record. “Dune: Part Three” opens December 18th.
