‘Avengers: Secret Wars’ Is Heading to IMAX, Giving Marvel’s Finale the Premium Screens ‘Doomsday’ Missed

Marvel’s biggest crossover story has turned into a tale of 2 very different big-screen rollouts. ‘Avengers: Secret Wars’, the film set to close out the Multiverse Saga, is lining up for the giant-screen treatment that its predecessor never got in most of the world.

The Russo brothers are directing both films, with Stephen McFeely among the writers on ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ and Michael Waldron also tied to the screenplays. The pair of movies are meant to wrap up Marvel’s Phase Six and the Multiverse Saga, which makes the format fight around them more than a footnote.

‘Avengers: Doomsday’ will not play in IMAX at launch, since ‘Dune: Part Three’ claimed the screens for the same weekend. Disney answered by introducing Infinity Vision, a new certification for premium auditoriums that meet what the studio calls rigorous technical standards, including big screens, laser projection and premium audio. The format was created specifically for that Marvel release. ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ opens on December 18 in Infinity Vision.

That is where the new announcement lands. IMAX confirmed during an earnings call that ‘Avengers: Secret Wars’ will play on its screens when it arrives in theaters on December 17, 2027. The news also spread through the IMAX CEO’s comments on a podcast, where he confirmed that both ‘Secret Wars’ and ‘Star Wars: Starfighter’ are getting IMAX releases.

The detail matters because ‘Doomsday’ now looks like the exception rather than the rule. Reports note that ‘Doomsday’ is still set to play in IMAX in China, but ‘Secret Wars’ is expected to get the format worldwide, giving Marvel’s finale a premium launch its predecessor was denied.

IMAX did not hide its feelings about Infinity Vision. Its CFO, Natasha Fernandes, described the rival label as a marketing play meant to offset the fact that ‘Doomsday’ has no IMAX platform or brand. She added that the new label offers consumers nothing they could not already get, and called Marvel fans some of the most discerning moviegoers out there. The comments came as IMAX reported first-quarter revenue of $81.4 million, its lowest quarter in 3 years.

No announcements about the future of Infinity Vision have been made beyond this year’s ‘Doomsday’ release. The IMAX deal for ‘Secret Wars’ suggests the studio is not walking away from giant-screen exhibition altogether, a point fans have raised while tracking Marvel’s premium format struggles this year.

The IMAX slot also tells a story about the calendar. According to one report, ‘Secret Wars’ replaced an untitled ‘Star Wars’ film on the release schedule, which also gave it the IMAX dates Disney had already secured. Disney has other IMAX titles lined up as well, including ‘Star Wars: Starfighter’ on May 28, 2027, which is set for IMAX 70mm film, plus ‘Frozen 3’.

‘Secret Wars’ will also share its release date with ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum’, so December 2027 is already shaping up to be another busy holiday window.

Production is the next big question. During Comic-Con in San Diego, the Russo brothers told Collider that filming on ‘Secret Wars’ will begin very soon, as they finish post-production on ‘Doomsday’ and prepare the sequel at the same time. Anthony Russo said the team is deep into finishing ‘Doomsday’ while already prepping its follow-up, which arrives about a year after the first film. Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige has said the studio purposely left the schedule empty between the 2 films.

The pairing of ‘Doomsday’ and ‘Secret Wars’ has been the plan for a long time, since the Russos confirmed that the movies would shoot back to back with a larger break in between than they had on the earlier Avengers films.

Marvel has also been using re-releases to build momentum, and an extended ‘Avengers: Endgame’ re-release called ‘Encore’ returned to theaters on September 25 in IMAX and Infinity Vision ahead of the 2 sequels.

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