DUNESDAY is Coming |

DUNESDAY is Coming

And we know the date:

18 December 2026 will be Dunesday.

The reason? Dune 3 and Avengers 5: Doomsday are currently both scheduled for release on the same day. Neither studio has plans to back off of that date. The question is, would moviegoers be willing to see both films the same weekend? Are we looking at another potential Barbenheimer event?

“Barbenheimer”

Image credit: LA Times

To refresh your memories, on 21 July 2023, both Oppenheimer and Barbie premiered in theatres. The movies couldn’t have been different: Barbie, based on the child’s toy, and Oppenheimer, a Nolan-directed masterpiece about the engineering and detonation of the first atomic bomb. The weekend event became a pop-culture moment, and many viewers decided to see both films the same weekend. The internet and social media fueled the event, termed Barbenheimer, and increased the box office for both films.

The metrics proved it:

A few weeks before Summer 2023, Oppenheimer was predicted to earn $45-50 million, and Barbie was predicated to earn $90-$120 million.

After the internet took over, promoting the idea of seeing both the same weekend, the end result was: Oppenheimer at $82 million and Barbie at $162 million.

It was a cultural phenomenon, but it was largely due to the differences between the films.

Dunesday

Now we have a possible new pop-cultural event approaching. I say “possible,” however, because one of the two studios might end up backing off. After all, both films claim the same group of genre fans, and both might also require IMAX theatres to show their film, and those theatres are limited in numbers. However, if this possibility hits the public consciousness, and theatregoers indeed make a plan to see both films the same weekend, then this could end up being massive.

Then again, many people said the same about “Glicked,” and that didn’t generate the same numbers of Barbenheimer. There was also “Exorswift,” but that didn’t materialize either.

Time will tell.

I’m willing to see both Avengers 5 and Dune 3 the same weekend. Are you?

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A Blanket of Steel by Timothy S. Johnston and from Fitzhenry & Whiteside, LTD. is the recipient of the 2024 GLOBAL Thriller Award GRAND PRIZE and the 2024 CYGNUS Award First in Category.

— Timothy S. Johnston, 5 January 2025

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Praise for Timothy S. Johnston’s A Blanket of Steel

“Fans of Clive Cussler’s NUMA Files will be delighted with Timothy S. Johnston’s undersea novels. Truman McClusky and Dirk Pitt are cut from the same adventurer’s cloth.” — Nick Cutter, author of The Deep and The Troop

“Action that ranges from close range combat to torpedo-fueled attacks. The result is a thriller that keeps moving from confrontation to confrontation … with constant danger and the vast depths of the ocean as a setting, there is always reason to keep reading.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Read the book and prepare to be blown away by one of the best writers I have ever had the pleasure to read. Timothy S. Johnston is simply amazing.” — FIVE Stars from Readers’ Favorite

“A Blanket of Steel is not simply a ‘daring do’ thriller … It’s prescient.” — Amazing Stories

“A priority selection. An action-packed story that is hard to put down. A Blanket of Steel is outstanding.” — D. Donovan, Sr. Reviewer, Midwest Book Review

“Innovative technology, Mac taking risks no one else would dare and thinking his way through to brilliant solutions … But the stakes are higher than they’ve ever been before. This is it. The countdown to the final battle … Johnston does an excellent job of keeping the tension taut as he plays with the reader’s perceptions of characters we thought we knew and trusted …” — SFcrowsnest

“Expect to be left breathless. Trust me here. Please. I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN.” — Michael Libling, author of The Serial Killer’s Son Takes A Wife and Hollywood North: A Novel in Six Reels

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A BLANKET OF STEEL is out now!

WATCH THE GRIPPING BOOK TRAILER HERE.

FOR PURCHASE OPTIONS CLICK HERE

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A Blanket of Steel from Timothy S. Johnston and Fitzhenry & Whiteside, Ltd.

Book Cover & Jacket Copy:

AN UNSTOPPABLE THREAT!

A mysterious assassin has murdered Cliff Sim, Chief Security Officer of the underwater colony, Trieste. Cliff was a mountain of a man, highly trained, and impossible to defeat in combat. And yet …

Someone brutally beat him and left his broken body in a secret Chinese facility at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.

And included a calling card for Truman McClusky, Mayor of Trieste.

Taunting him.

Mac has led the underwater colonies in their fight against the world’s superpowers. Climate change has devastated the surface; nations suffer famine, drought, rebellion, rising waters, and apocalyptic coastal flooding. But now, as Mac leads the underwater colonies to freedom and independence, he’s faced with the gravest threat of his life: a Russian assassin, hellbent on killing Mac and everyone he cares for. Now Mac must uncover the identity of the killer, face him in combat, and at the same time lead people in battle against the largest underwater force ever assembled. It’s Mac’s final test, and to win the war, he must use every tool at his disposal, including the most surprising and devastating underwater weapons ever invented.

If Mac fails, all hope is lost for the future of human colonization on the ocean floors.

But the assassin could be anyone …

Watch your back, Mac.

A Blanket of Steel is the most gripping thriller yet in The Rise of Oceania.

FOR PURCHASE OPTIONS CLICK HERE

The other books in The Rise of Oceania series by Timothy S Johnston:

The War Beneath 9781771484718
The Savage Deeps 9781771485067
Fatal Depth 9781554555574
An Island of Light 9781554555819
The Shadow of War 9781554556007