Doomsday’ Release Dates the Same Day?

“Dunesday”? “Doomsdune”? Whatever the nickname, cinema operators are bracing for a box office battle royale on Dec. 18.

That’s when two of this year’s biggest movies — Disney’s Marvel adventure “Avengers: Doomsday” and Warner Bros. and Legendary’s sci-fi epic “Dune: Part III” — are scheduled to face off in theaters. On one hand, it’s an embarrassment of riches for a business that frequently complains there aren’t enough exciting films to showcase. On the other, it seems like poor planning to expend so much firepower at once. It has left many in the industry to wonder if one of these blockbusters will end up relocating elsewhere on the calendar.

Neither film is expected to blink, which is surprising to box office watchers because there’s so much overlap in the target audience. Although “Doomsday” has four-quadrant appeal, both of the tentpoles have male-skewing fanbases. After all, “Barbenheimer” was a classic case of counter-programming; the two films at the center of the cinematic phenomenon — Greta Gerwig’s bright pink comedy “Barbie” and Christopher Nolan’s extremely dark historical drama “Oppenheimer” — catered to very different demographics.

“Dunesday” is only similar to “Barbenheimer” in the sense that nearly every actor in Hollywood is employed in one of the two films. “Dune 3” stars Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Florence Pugh, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jason Momoa, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin and Rebecca Ferguson. Meanwhile “Doomsday” features a kitchen sink of Avengers and X-Men, including Robert Downey Jr. (returning not as Iron Man but as Doctor Doom), Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Paul Rudd, Anthony Mackie, Pugh (big weekend for the British star!), Patrick Stewart, Pedro Pascal, Ian McKellen, Letitia Wright and Channing Tatum.

Although “Dune 3” was first to stake out the prime pre-Christmas release date (“Doomsday” was set for May 2025, but moved twice due to the strikes), the “Avengers” sequel has the leverage. Early tracking has been strong, according to sources, and “Doomsday” is widely predicted to be the year’s highest grossing release. Disney even launched a live-countdown clock that’s ticking off the months, days, hours, minutes and seconds until the film’s mid-December premiere. Yeah, Downey and crew aren’t going anywhere.

“Dune” doesn’t have quite the same box office pedigree, but the franchise has been rising in popularity. “Part One,” which opened in October 2021, earned $410 million globally while playing simultaneously on HBO Max. Then “Part Two,” which landed in November 2024, became a theatrical juggernaut with $714 million. “Part Three” has the benefit of Imax, where it’ll run exclusively for three weeks since director Denis Villeneuve shot the film with the company’s cameras. “Dune” and “Doomsday” are expected to split the remaining footprint of premium large format screens, including Dolby and ScreenX. (For what it’s worth, “Barbie” shattered expectations with only standard screens.)

If “Avengers: Doomsday” and “Dune: Part Three” want to remain in this calendar year, there aren’t many alternative launching pads. Sony’s “Jumanji 3,” another big-budget adventure, is set a week earlier on Dec. 11. Exhibitors are actually more worried the third “Jumanji” will get crushed after its opening since the majority of auditoriums will be dedicated to screening “Doomsday” and “Dune” around the clock.

While Disney’s Thanksgiving release, the animated adventure “Hexed,” is aiming for much younger crowds compared to “Doomsday,” the studio isn’t going to take the risk of cannibalizing its own films. Early December is barren, with just Universal’s holiday-themed thriller “Violent Night 2” slated for Dec. 4. Yet studios avoid that frame because it’s usually a box office dead zone, with families distracted by shopping and yuletide festivities between Turkey Day and winter break.

Although rivals and exhibitors believe that “Avengers: Doomsday” and “Dune: Part Three” would enjoy larger box office grosses with distance from each other, most assume there’s room for the two behemoths to co-exist. Christmas is the ideal time to release an all-audience film because people are likelier to take repeat trips to the cinema. Even if moviegoers don’t plan a double feature on opening weekend (that could be an all-day affair given the presumed butt-numbing runtimes of each film), they could return to their local multiplex later in the holiday season. Then there’s usually a clear runway through much of January and February.

Theater owners, meanwhile, are giddy at the prospect of the double-billing. Although Marvel’s recent track record has been rocky, the comic book empire’s biggest post-pandemic hits were major “Avengers”-esque team-ups, including 2021’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home” ($1.9 billion) and 2024’s “Deadpool & Wolverine” ($1.33 billion). Moreover, the last time that Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe assembled the whole gang — 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame” — resulted in the largest opening weekend of all time with $357 million domestically and $1.2 billion globally. Meanwhile, “Dune: Part Two” collected a mighty $80 million in its domestic debut and $178 million worldwide. Since the third installment wraps the Arrakis-set trilogy, box office prognosticators believe “Dune” will go out on a high.

If “Barbenheimer” could power to the fourth-biggest collective weekend in box office history with $300 million, “Dunesday” should have no trouble cementing its place among the top three. Those spots currently belong to 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame” ($402 million collectively), 2018’s “Avengers: Infinity War” ($314 million collectively) and 2015’s “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” ($313 million collectively).

“We’ve been desperate for all these years for volume,” says exhibitor Chris Randleman of FlixBrewhouse. “Here is volume. It’s the best-case scenario ever. You’re so busy you don’t know what to do with yourself. It’s awesome.”