Marvel Studios is gearing up for arguably its most ambitious release in Avengers: Doomsday, which will see heroes from three different realities combine forces to save the multiverse from the threat of Doctor Doom. As one might expect, Marvel has assembled quite a large ensemble for Doomsday, uniting established franchise veterans with fresher faces to craft the MCU’s largest ensemble yet. Doomsday is still a handful of months away from release, but anticipation is very high — especially following the release of the film’s first full trailer. In conjunction with the trailer debut, tickets for Doomsday went on sale. After the first day, they’re selling fast. But not as fast as a different Marvel hero.
According to box office reporter Luiz Fernando on X, Avengers: Doomsday sold the third-most tickets all time within the first 24 hours in the post-pandemic era. The only films it trails star a certain web head: Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Spider-Man: No Way Home. Doomsday narrowly edged out Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness to secure its spot.
Per Variety, Doomsday earned $16.5 million in pre-sales in its first day, twice as much as Deadpool & Wolverine. This is notable because it made that much from only 1,000 locations and didn’t have the benefit of IMAX screenings.
Exhibitors already salivating and getting ready for the #Christmas Season of a lifetime at US #BoxOffice, as ticket pre-sales for #AvengersDoomsday scored the #3 BIGGEST 24h kick off for any movie Post-Covid, only below both #SpiderManBrandNewDay & #SpiderManNoWayHome, slightly… pic.twitter.com/C9s51ZqM0z
Much has been made in recent years about the MCU’s decline. And while there’s some truth to the sentiment that superhero movies have lost some of their box office prowess, the fact that four MCU movies have the four highest-selling pre-sales numbers of the decade indicate that people can still get excited for a new Marvel release. Remember, the infamous empty chairs livestream unveiling the Doomsday cast broke viewership records, so Marvel can still dominate the conversation. Time will tell what review scores Doomsday receives, but it’s shaping up to be one of the biggest box office hits of the year. An interesting question to consider is whether or not Brand New Day will beat Doomsday on the charts.
There’s precedent for something like this happening. In 2018, Black Panther was the highest-grossing movie of the year domestically with $700 million, surpassing Avengers: Infinity War‘s total of $678.8 million. Worldwide, Infinity War was the clear winner with over $2 billion, but this shows it’s still possible for a solo Marvel movie to top a crossover event (at least in North America). If Black Panther can do it, it isn’t unrealistic for Brand New Day to pull it off, especially since Spider-Man is Marvel’s most popular character and is one of the handful of superheroes who is immune to any shifting box office trends. A movie starring Spider-Man is going to be a massive hit at any time.
It’s also important to remember that Doomsday is opening on the same day as Dune: Part Three, which has secured an exclusive IMAX run in December. Odds are, Doomsday will earn more than Dune, but the lack of IMAX screenings plus the presence of another massively anticipated genre film could eat into its business a bit. Spider-Man: Brand New Day will be playing alongside The Odyssey, which is a huge box office hit, but the situations are not a 1:1 comparison. Spider-Man is premiering two weeks after The Odyssey. Christopher Nolan’s fantasy epic will continue to be a draw throughout August, but it will probably make a lion’s share of its money over its first two weeks before making way for Spider-Man. Dune and Doomsday are opening on the same weekend. One does not have a head start over the other. There had been some speculation that one of those films could move, but both seem set on December 18th.
August has some films that are worth getting excited about, such as David Robert Mitchell’s The End of Oak Street and Ridley Scott’s The Dog Stars, but there’s nothing on the level of The Odyssey or Spider-Man. Brand New Day should have a very fruitful August, taking full advantage of a weak marketplace (outside of The Odyssey, of course, which could see its business go down a bit as Spider-Man picks up). That could lead to a perfect storm where Brand New Day actually outgrosses Doomsday. The odds of Avengers hitting $2 billion are low, particularly with Dune: Part Three playing as well. Marvel movies can still be hits, but the franchise is in a very different place now than it was a decade ago, as the Infinity Saga was gradually building up to its epic conclusion. It’ll be interesting to see how this Marvel box office battle pans out.
What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
