Avengers: Doomsday & Dune 3 Box Office Battle On Track For Historic Opening Weekend

Published Nov 13, 2026, 5:26 PM EST Brennan Klein (he/him) is a senior news writer at Screen Rant, host of the Attack of the Queerwolf podcast, and contributor at Alternate Ending and Horror Press. He has been writing and podcasting about pop culture (especially horror movies) for over a decade at platforms including Blumhouse, Fangoria, Dread Central, The Backlot, and Arrow in the Head. The battle between Avengers: Doomsday and Dune: Part Three is poised to set the box office on fire. Both big-budget franchise sequels are set to debut in theaters on December 18, the weekend before Christmas. The upcoming Avengers: Doomsday is the 39th movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the first Avengers team-up installment since 2019's Avengers: Endgame, which is the highest-grossing movie in history. Meanwhile, Dune: Part Three is the third theatrical installment in the trilogy of Timothée Chalamet-led adaptations of the classic Frank Herbert sci-fi series of the same name. 2021's Dune was the 11th highest-grossing movie of that year while 2024's Dune: Part Two was the seventh highest-grossing. According to Box Office Theory, the nearly unprecedented fact that both movies, which are targeting heavily similar demographics, are debuting on the same weekend could lead to an explosive box office record. While the best domestic box office weekend in history was just posted this July (during the opening weekend of Spider-Man: Brand New Day and the third frame of The Odyssey, which drove the overall weekend to $437.1 million), Dune: Part Three and Avengers: Doomsday could be set to team up to smash that record. While these are still very early projections and could move demonstrably up or down, at the time of writing, Denis Vileneuve's Dune: Part Three is projected to earn a 3-day gross between $91 and $115 million, which would be a record for the franchise after the 2021 movie opened with $41 million and Part Two bowed to $82.5 million. Meanwhile, Avengers: Doomsday is projected to earn between $340 and $410 million. If it hits the higher end of that range, it will usurp Spider-Man: Brand New Day's 3-day debut of $360.1 million as the best domestic opening weekend in history. Those ranges, combined with the box office receipts of holdover holiday season titles, could very well see the weekend grossing more than $437.1 million. Below, see a breakdown of the major holiday season movies that should still be in theaters during the dual opening weekend of Avengers and Dune: Title Release Date The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping November 20 Focker-in-Law November 25 Hexed November 25 Violent Night 2 December 4 The Debut December 11 Elsinore December 11 Zero A.D.: The Birth of Christ December 11 Long-range projections are notoriously volatile, so both movies' numbers could vary due to a variety of factors, including earning a negative Rotten Tomatoes score (at the time of writing, no reviews of either film have been published). However, Marvel's Avengers: Doomsday had reportedly already earned more than $50 million in ticket pre-sales as of early September, with a new report alleging that 60,000 more pre-sale tickets have been sold since the VisionQuest finale aired on Disney+ on November 10. Regardless of whether or not their mutual opening weekend ends up breaking the record, Avengers: Doomsday and Dune: Part Three are both poised to become major all-time hits. While the latter title is looking like it will perform especially well on the scale of the previous movies in the franchise, if Doomsday builds up momentum rather than crashing during its sophomore weekend, it could swiftly become one of the highest-grossing movies of all time worldwide. Enjoy ScreenRant's box office coverage? Click below to sign up for my weekly box office newsletter (make sure to check "Box Office" in your preferences) and get exclusive analysis, predictions, and more: Sign Up Release Date December 18, 2026 Runtime 165 Minutes Director Anthony Russo, Joe Russo Cast Reed Richards / Mr. Fantastic Vanessa Kirby Sue Storm / Invisible Woman Avengers: Doomsday is the fifth Avengers film and kicks off Phase 6 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. A stacked cast of heroes both new and old to the MCU — including members of the X-Men — will face off against Victor von Doom, revealed at San Diego Comic-Con in 2024 to be played by a returning Robert Downey Jr. Writers Stephen McFeely, Michael Waldron, Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers Producers Anthony Russo, Joe Russo, Kevin Feige, Louis D'Esposito, Jonathan Schwartz Prequel(s) Spider-Man: Brand New Day Franchise(s) Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers, Fantastic Four, Black Panther, Thor, X-Men Main Genre Superhero Executive Producer(s) Callum McDougall Release Date December 18, 2026 Runtime 140 Minutes Director Denis Villeneuve The epic adaptation of Frank Herbert's sci-fi saga continues, this time drawing from his books Dune: Messiah and Children of Dune. Writers Jon Spaihts, Denis Villeneuve, Frank Herbert Producers Cale Boyter, Denis Villeneuve, Mary Parent, Tanya Lapointe Prequel(s) Dune, Dune: Part Two Franchise(s) Dune Main Genre Sci-Fi Executive Producer(s) Brian Herbert, Byron Merritt, John Harrison, Jon Spaihts, Kim Herbert, Richard P. Rubinstein, Thomas Tull