“Avengers: Doctor Doom” will gain a significant advantage in the fight for viewers against “Dune: Part Three” in China. The new Marvel film will be released there on December 16, while Denis Villeneuve's final part of the trilogy will only reach local cinemas on December 31. Thus, the “Avengers” will have about two weeks to collect box office receipts without direct competition from “Dune.”
However, in the US, the situation favors Villeneuve. Both blockbusters will be widely released on December 18, but screenings of “Dune: Part Three” in IMAX will begin as early as December 14. Moreover, for the first three weeks, American theaters of this format will be exclusively dedicated to Villeneuve's film, so Marvel will have to rely on its own premium format, Infinity Vision.
At the same time, the hype around both films began long before their premiere. “Dune: Part Three” has already set a record at London's BFI IMAX, where 33 thousand tickets worth over 880 thousand pounds were sold on the first day. This is more than what Christopher Nolan's “Odyssey” and the previous “Dune” collected during the same period.
The new “Avengers” are also in high demand. As reported in August, in the first two days, pre-sales for “Doctor Doom” were 65% higher than for “Spider-Man: A New Day” over the same period. The latter has currently earned almost $2.52 billion and became the highest-grossing film of 2026.