‘Avengers: Doomsday’ Already Surpassed ‘Fantastic Four: First Steps’ in This Important Box Office Metric

Marvel fans have spent the past several months anxiously waiting for any real signal of how big ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ was actually going to be. Between endless casting reveals and a marketing rollout stretched across nearly a year, it has been difficult to gauge just how much of that hype would translate into genuine consumer demand once tickets actually became available.

That question got answered almost instantly. Ticket sales for ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ officially opened this morning, exclusively for theaters certified under Disney’s new Infinity Vision premium format, covering select showtimes across the film’s first two weeks in release.

According to industry tracker BoxOfficeTheory, ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ surpassed the entire first day of presales for ‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ in under two hours. Given how strong that earlier film’s own opening day performance was, seeing Doomsday clear that same benchmark in a fraction of the time signals just how much pent-up demand has been building for this crossover.

This is not a case of comparing Doomsday to a weak predecessor just to inflate the numbers. ‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ delivered one of Marvel’s stronger openings of the past several years, and its box office run steadily climbed the all time MCU charts throughout its theatrical release, eventually becoming the highest grossing Fantastic Four film ever made.

Beating that film’s full first day presale total in under two hours puts Doomsday’s early trajectory in rare territory, echoing the kind of overwhelming demand Marvel last saw with ‘Avengers: Endgame,’ a film that famously broke ticketing platforms and shattered every previous superhero presale record on its way to a record breaking opening weekend.

Part of what makes this early surge notable is that these are not standard tickets. This initial sale is exclusive to theaters certified under Disney’s newly created Infinity Vision format, a premium large format designation the studio built specifically because Warner Bros. locked down IMAX exclusivity for the same December release window that Doomsday shares with Dune Part Three.

The rollout covers select showtimes running from Thursday, December 17, when early preview screenings begin, through Wednesday, December 30, with general 2D and standard format tickets outside Infinity Vision still not yet on sale. That means the film’s true presale numbers, once every ticket tier becomes available, could climb significantly higher than what today’s early figures already suggest.

The timing of this presale surge lines up directly with Marvel finally releasing the film’s first full trailer to the public today, giving fans their most complete look yet at Doctor Doom, the returning X-Men, and the sprawling ensemble cast converging for this crossover. Pairing a major trailer debut with the opening of ticket sales gave fans an immediate reason to commit rather than wait.

With San Diego Comic Con still ahead this coming weekend, and Marvel Studios returning to Hall H for the first time since Robert Downey Jr’s surprise Doctor Doom reveal made headlines back in 2024, this presale milestone suggests the hype train is only accelerating from here.

Early presale numbers are far from a guarantee of final box office success, but they are one of the clearest early indicators of genuine audience demand. Clearing a benchmark this significant in under two hours suggests Marvel may be looking at one of its biggest theatrical openings since the conclusion of the Infinity Saga.

With ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ still five months away from its December 18 release, this early presale explosion has already set an extraordinarily high bar for what comes next. Are you among the fans who already locked in your tickets today? Let us know in the comments.