“Dunesday” has been a fan meme for months now, as moviegoers brace for the arrival of two major sequels, Avengers: Doomsday and Dune: Part Three, to release on the same date, Friday, December 18, 2026. Film fans have been eager to see another major double feature with a perfect portmanteau ever since “Barbenheimer” in the summer of 2023, when Barbie and Oppenheimer took the world by storm. Tickets are on sale now for both movies, and even though we’re just under two months away from the premiere of both films, the winner may have already been revealed.
According to EmpireCity Box Office, ticket pre-sales between Avengers: Doomsday and Dune: Part Three have already been moving in favor of Marvel by a “3.2x or 4x to 1 ratio.” The result is clear that Doomsday will be the winner of the weekend box office when both of these films debut, but it shouldn’t discourage Dune fans from thinking that the final chapter in Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi trilogy will suddenly be a box office bomb; in fact, the film has a secret weapon that even Doomsday doesn’t have.
Based on presales so far, @Avengers Doomsday going to win Dec. 18th weekend by a 3.2x or 4x to 1 ratio. Not a knock on the sales of @dunemovie at all, but the winner of the weekend is set. There is no real competition between the two, shows you what a juggernaut is incoming. pic.twitter.com/XsZw51pVLU
It’s worth remembering that the arrival of two major sci-fi blockbusters on the same day, a week before Christmas no less, was previously not supposed to happen at all. Dune: Part Three was the first movie to claim the date, and as a result, has a major advantage over Marvel’s Avengers: Doomsday, which is all of the IMAX screens in North America. As a result, when Avengers: Doomsday had to vacate its May release date and was delayed to December, it meant that the new MCU chapter wouldn’t be in the biggest premium large format theaters, with Dune locking them down for much of the holiday season.
This is just one reason Dune fans shouldn’t worry about the new movie being a bomb of any sort in relation to Avengers: Doomsday. Not only does the film have IMAX screens secured for one of the busiest movie-going windows of the year, but that same time frame is when major blockbusters develop long legs at the box office, with fans showing up throughout the week and giving weekends an extra boost. That said, even as Dune has IMAX screens locked down, Avengers: Doomsday will seemingly have other PLF screens all to itself, with Marvel even rolling out their own “Infinity Vision” distinction to try and compete with IMAX.
There’s another little caveat worth noting about the distance in ticket sales between Avengers: Doomsday and Dune: Part Three, and it’s that Doomsday has had tickets on sale for even longer. Tickets went on sale for Doomsday on Monday, July 20th, with the film making $16.5 million in advance premium format ticket sales on the first day and securing $35 million in advance ticket sales just a month later. On the flip side, Dune: Part Three began selling IMAX 70 mm tickets back in April, and though they sold out quickly, it was notably only in nineteen locations. Furthermore, worldwide ticket sales for the film didn’t open until last week, meaning Doomsday had a major head start.
It’s worth looking back on that July 21, 2023 opening release weekend for both Barbie and Oppenheimer, though. Greta Gerwig’s film may have won the weekend with $162 million to the $82 million brought in by Christopher Nolan’s film, but both films would go on to make so much more, and each won Oscars. Suffice to say, the friendly competition may have a winner for opening weekend, but that won’t tell the full story.
