Although there was an obscene amount of success tied to the theatrical release of Spider-Man: No Way Home back in 2021, the action film ended up coming in short against Dune in the Best Visual Effects category, while at the 2022 Academy Award ceremony.
Released through Sony pictures, the latest Spider-Man project quickly became the highest-grossing film ever released by the multinational corporation, while also holding the titled as the fourth-biggest film to gross an obscene amount of money over time. As the acclaimed film, and latest installment, has broken endless amounts of records, even leading to speculation around actor Tom Holland possibly receiving a massive pay raise in future Spider-Man films, the overall hype around No Way Home was simply no match for the Sci-Fi adventure picture Dune, that also broke barriers in cinematography.
More About Dune's Rise To Success
Based on the 1965 science fiction novel, originally published in Analog Magazine, by American author Frank Herbert. Dune revolves around the evolution of a highly gifted young nobleman, Paul Atreides (Timothée Hal Chalamet), as he settles into his emerging destiny as a great world leader. Following his growth and family encounters with his dad, the ruler of the planet Arrakis (Dune), Paul is faced with the challenge of traveling to the most dangerous planet in the universe, in order to ensure the future of his family and his people will not be destroyed by malicious forces on the horizon.
While these same forces aim to capture the supply in Dune's valuable spice resource, the most valuable product in the known universe, the end goal is to preserve the natural supply and restore order, however survivors will only last if they are able to conquer their own fears.
Released in conjunction with Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures, Dune was able to gross an estimated $400M mark globally, with international box office numbers coming in at $292.3M, and domestically projecting over $107.8M. Additionally, after releasing exclusively on HBO Max, a total of 1.9 million households viewed the fantasy film during its opening weekend. This heightened number of viewers, breaking subscription-based streaming history, placed itself ahead of previous premiers such as Zack Snyder's Justice League and In the Heights, which accumulated over 1.8 million viewers in total. Despite the fact that Dune became a tremendous box office success, the plot and production catapulted the film's overflowing mainstream reception.
The factors that could have led to Dune's Oscars win is embedded in the story originality (a storyline that seemed unfamiliar from conventional longtime plots), added by highly integrated visuals, which effectively plunged viewers into a world that felt new and strange yet enticing to be in for the project's full duration. Overall, both Dune and Spider-Man: No Way Home were massive successes in their own regards. Each project's visuals aided in conveying a story that provided moments of shock and awe, while effortlessly adding a backdrop to each story. Both onscreen and off, the two films have cemented their legacies as timeless works of art.