I Don't Think Avengers: Doomsday Vs. Dune 3 At The Box Office Is Another Barbenheimer, It's Even Bigger

Remember back in 2023, when Barbie and Oppenheimer opened on the same day and led to the global sensation known as “Barbenheimer?” Well, one of the final weekends of the 2026 movie schedule will give audiences (and the world at large) another big event when the hotly anticipated Avengers: Doomsday and the mysterious Dune: Part Three both drop on the same day in December. When the Russos and Denis Villeneuve go up against one another with an epic clash of superheroes and sci-fi, a lot of us will be left with a big decision to make: which do we see first?

Though you could treat “DunesDay,” as I’m calling it from now on, as the next “Barbenheimer,” I actually think this box-office showdown is even bigger, with higher stakes for Warner Bros., Marvel, and cinema as a whole. Come with me as I break it all down less than a year before these two go head-to-head.

There’s A Long History Of Movies Opening The Same Day, But They Rarely Go For The Same Audience

With so many movies coming out all the time, it’s not rare for two or more big releases to drop on the same weekend. When Dune: Part Three and Avengers: Doomsday hit the big screen on December 18, they’ll be on a list that includes so many iconic films. While there have been some releases geared towards similar audiences (The Thing and Blade Runner in 1982 and Ghostbusters and Gremlins in 1984 come to mind), these have mostly been in the same camp as Barbie and Oppenheimer, in that they are geared towards vastly different crowds.

You have Casino and Toy Story in November 1995, Ray and Saw in October 2004, Casino Royale and Happy Feet in November 2006, and my favorite, The Dark Knight and Mamma Mia! in July 2008, to name only a few. As I mentioned, these shared releases are vastly different from one another. That won’t be the case with the big December 2026 weekend, which is going to make things oh so interesting.

I Think This Could Be Warner Bros. Testing Marvel’s Strength After A Down Period

When I first heard about Dune: Part Three opening not just in the same month as Doomsday, but the same day, I was shocked. Looking back at the previous four Avengers movies, no major releases tried to compete with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes on opening weekend. Well, that’ll change this year when Villeneuve’s star-studded threequel goes head-to-head with the Russo brothers’ epic crossover event.

I don’t know if Warner Bros. smells blood in the water or what, but this feels like the studio testing Marvel’s strength following a lengthy down period for the MCU. While there have been some big wins like Spider-Man: No Way Home, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, the vast majority of the releases in a post-Endgame world haven’t come close to the successes Marvel saw a decade ago.

Though Dune: Part Two didn’t come anywhere close to the first four Avengers movies in terms of box office receipts, it did make $715 million worldwide, per Box Office Mojo. That said, Warner Bros. has every right to be bullish here, especially with franchise star Timothée Chalamet being on an absolute tear in the two years since he last played Paul Atreides. I can’t help but wonder what this will mean if Part Three comes close to or surpasses Doomsday at the box office.

I Wonder Who’ll Get More IMAX Screens And Other Premium Formats

It won’t be surprising if Doomsday and Part Three both open on close to 4,000 screens later this year, as there are theaters all over the country ready for the big showdown. However, there aren’t nearly as many IMAX screens and other premium formats, meaning these two will be competing hard for those more lucrative showings in December.

Remember back in 2023, when Tom Cruise was allegedly upset that Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning was only receiving one week of exclusive IMAX programming before Barbie and Oppenheimer came for all the screens days after Ethan Hunt’s penultimate adventure debuted? Well, I imagine it’s going to be even more intense this time around. I would even go as far as to say that whoever gets more IMAX scenes will have the better shot in this showdown.

Though There Have Been Some Down Years Recently, December Is Traditionally A Massive Box Office Month

Since the start of the 21st century, there have been seven Decembers in which box office totals have eclipsed the $1 billion mark domestically, per Box Office Mojo. On top of that, there were just as many in which there were more than $900 million in receipts. While there have been some down years in the past half-decade (the pandemic had a hand in this), December is, by and large, a great month at the movies. Even more so, those successes bleed into the new year.

This brings me to something else I’m excited to see from this experiment: What kind of legs Avengers: Doomsday and Dune: Part Three will have going into the new year. Both films are coming out with less than two weeks left on the 2026 calendar, meaning they’re going to make a large chunk of cash in the days and weeks following the new year. We’re seeing it right now with James Cameron’s Avatar: Fire and Ash chugging along and crossing the $1 billion mark, and it was the case for the previous Avatar films and Cameron’s own Titanic.

It’s pretty much a given that these two movies are going to make a ton of money at the jump and in the days and weeks following their respective releases, but will it be enough to shift more blockbusters to Christmas, opposed to the summer? It’s worked for Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies, and the aforementioned Cameron movies, but will Hollywood go heavier here? I’m excited to see how this plays out.

With two of the biggest movies in recent memory hitting theaters on the same day, it’s safe to say it’s going to be a massive December on the big screen. How big and how transformative the showdown becomes is anyone’s guess. I just can’t wait to see it all go down.