‘Avengers: Doomsday’ Just Scored Its First Win Over ‘Dune: Part Three’ Before It Even Hits Theaters
The battle for December 18 has been brewing for months now, and it just got a lot more interesting. Marvel and Warner Bros. have been quietly circling each other for weeks, each trying to claim the bigger share of holiday moviegoers without actually blinking first on their shared release date.
That standoff traces back to a scheduling collision nobody saw coming when ‘Avengers, Doomsday’ and ‘Dune, Part Three’ both landed on the same December weekend. Warner Bros. moved fast, locking down roughly 400 IMAX screens across North America for Denis Villeneuve’s sequel for three weeks straight, a move that effectively boxed Disney out of the premium format that typically drives a huge chunk of blockbuster opening weekend revenue.
Disney’s response came in the form of Infinity Vision, its own newly created large format brand designed to give ‘Doomsday’ a premium screen option of its own, even without the IMAX name attached.
That branding decision has now paid off in a very public way, with new data showing the ticket announcement for ‘Avengers, Doomsday’ generated more than double the Google Search interest compared to the recent trailer drop for ‘Dune, Part Three.’
That kind of search spike lines up with just how aggressively Disney has been pushing the early ticket rollout. The studio confirmed that select Infinity Vision screenings for ‘Doomsday’ will go on sale five months ahead of the film’s release, a notably early window clearly meant to build buzz well before the film’s presumed full trailer debut at Comic Con. Alongside the ticket news, Disney also revealed the film’s runtime sits at 165 minutes, placing it comfortably between 2018’s ‘Infinity War’ and 2019’s ‘Endgame’ in terms of length.
‘Dune, Part Three’ has not been sitting quietly during any of this either. Warner Bros. has been selling IMAX 70mm tickets as far out as eight months in advance, leaning hard into the format advantage it secured early. The film’s own trailer drop leaned into that same messaging, prominently branding itself as filmed for IMAX and confirming its December 18 release alongside a first look at Paul Atreides now ruling as a haunted, ruthless Emperor nearly two decades after the events of the previous film.
Even with that head start, the newly reported search numbers suggest Marvel’s ticket news still managed to pull ahead in raw public interest, at least for now. Part of that may simply come down to scale, since ‘Doomsday’ arrives after a seven-year wait following ‘Endgame’ and comes loaded with an enormous ensemble cast that includes Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom, alongside returning names like Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Anthony Mackie, and a wave of X-Men characters joining the Avengers roster for the first time.
Disney is clearly hoping that scale translates into ticket sales, especially with Infinity Vision positioned as its answer to losing out on IMAX real estate. The studio has reportedly already fielded more than 7,500 applications from theater exhibitors hoping to get certified for the new format, a sign that exhibitors are betting heavily on ‘Doomsday’ delivering Endgame-level box office regardless of which screens it plays on. Disney is also sweetening the pot with a theatrical re-release of ‘Avengers: Endgame’ this September, complete with new footage and a post-credits scene that ties directly into ‘Doomsday.’
For Warner Bros. and Villeneuve, the IMAX advantage remains the trump card heading into the fall, especially with ‘Dune, Part Two’ having already proven the format can drive massive box office numbers on its own. Whether that translates into a search and ticket sales edge once ‘Doomsday’ gets its own full trailer at Comic Con remains to be seen, but for now, the early numbers are tilting firmly in Marvel’s favor.
Which December 18 Blockbuster Are You More Excited to See?
With both films still five months out and neither studio showing any sign of moving off December 18, the format war between IMAX and Infinity Vision looks like it is only going to intensify from here. Fans on both sides are already picking teams online, and the box office fallout come December could end up being just as talked about as either film itself.
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