Copyright Screen Rant
There are plenty of exciting movies coming up in 2026, and the summer especially is so crowded that anyone who's interested in box office will have a field day. But if there's one head-to-head match-up that tops them all, it's Avengers: Doomsday vs. Dune: Part 3, scheduled to take place on December 18. Of course, the safe bet is that this battle never happens – when Doomsday moved to this release date back in May, after it was already occupied by Dune, the immediate assessment was that one of them would end up shifting again. Two blockbusters opening against each other can be a good thing, if they're complementary in some way, but studios never really want to let their biggest films compete like this when their audiences have as much overlap as these two will. They risk cannibalizing each other in a way that hurts them both, and there's too much invested in them to allow that. But the weekend just before Christmas is a plum slot; Avatar: Fire & Ash is dated there this year. So, the question is, which one moves off it? The assumption, at first glance, is that Dune backs down. Denis Villeneuve's sci-fi series is a big success, and Dune: Part 2 was one of the defining movies of its year, but its global box office haul was $715 million. Marvel may be down on its luck lately, but only the bravest in Hollywood would bet against the first Avengers movie since Endgame, let alone the one that brings Robert Downey, Jr. back. A few days ago, I would've said the same. After this latest update, though, I'm not sure it's so clearcut anymore. Dune: Part 3's IMAX Advantage Could Tip The Scales In Its Favor Movie release dates are swapped around all the time, for a variety of reasons, but many of them in the past couple years have been driven by IMAX availability. After the Barbenheimer phenomenon helped everyone realize that PLFs (premium large formats) mattered to the post-pandemic moviegoer, IMAX became one of the hottest commodities in Hollywood. Not securing their screens for your big event movie risks setting it up to underperform. Disney wouldn't move Avengers: Doomsday without being certain they could access those screens on that date – but Dune: Part 3 is being partially filmed with IMAX cameras, which historically confers some privileged treatment from the company. In the most extreme example, Christopher Nolan negotiated three exclusive weeks for Oppenheimer, shutting out Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning after a few days and Barbie until a special re-release two months later. IMAX's recent investor earnings call shed a little light on the situation. The presentation included a list of every new release currently expected to play on their screens in 2026, and both Dune and Doomsday are among them. But only the former has the symbol denoting the "filmed for IMAX" program. IMAX wants to be in business with both films, and both films want to be in business with IMAX. But the Oppenheimer situation showed that the company is willing to reward the use of its cameras even when something else seems like the bigger fish. Even if Disney were to insist on keeping Avengers: Doomsday where it is, Dune: Part 3 might be the movie that ends up with the lion's share of the most premium screens, and maybe even all of them. Would Disney risk releasing Doomsday without IMAX? If Dune refuses to back off from December 18, 2026, we might find out.
