Dune 3 and Avengers: Doomsday Same Release Date Confirmed

Avengers: Doomsday will have stiff competition when it finally debuts in theaters in December 2026. The highly anticipated MCU crossover event has been years in the making, but that doesn't necessarily guarantee box office success, especially when competing against one of the most highly anticipated films of next year.

According to Puck's Matthew Belloni, Warner Bros. isn't backing down from Dune: Part Three's release date, which currently falls on December 18, the same day that Doomsday is set to hit theaters. This will force the two blockbuster franchises to go head-to-head for the first time — and MCU fans are understandably worried.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe isn't the box office juggernaut it once was. In the post-COVID era, the MCU has struggled to get audiences into theaters. While major event films like Spider-Man: No Way Home and Deadpool & Wolverine still perform well, the franchise as a whole has seen decreased returns over the last five years. All of Marvel's 2025 offerings were considered moderate box office disappointments, despite widely positive reviews for Thunderbolts* and The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

Dune, on the other hand, is the complete opposite story. The 2021 film was a bona fide hit, earning just under $430 million worldwide. Following overwhelmingly positive reviews, Dune: Part Two nearly doubled this amount with $715 million (via The Numbers). There is no reason to expect that the highly anticipated third installment of Denis Villeneuve's sci-fi franchise will do any worse than its predecessors. It may be that Hollywood has finally found a worthy competitor to Marvel's Avengers franchise.

In the 2010s, going up against a new Avengers film would mean sure defeat for any movie. Now, with audiences slowly drifting away from the MCU, this isn't so certain. Avengers: Doomsday needs to be a smash hit to keep the MCU afloat after a turbulent few years, but Dune will provide sure competition that may finally dethrone Marvel's crown jewel franchise.

Who Will Win the "Dunesday" Battle?

December 2026 will be an interesting time as audiences watch and wait to see whether Avengers: Doomsday or Dune: Part Three will emerge victorious. In terms of sheer box office numbers, Avengers: Doomsday will almost certainly prevail. The Avengers movies, on average, create more revenue than Dune. No Avengers movie has made less than $1.5 billion globally, and it seems safe to assume that Doomsday will be no different.

Dune, on the other hand, caters to a smaller audience than the MCU. While Marvel movies are carefully crafted to appeal to as broad an audience as possible, Dune more specifically targets fans of hard science fiction and epic action. As a natural result, Dune: Part Three is more likely to achieve a smaller box office total than Avengers: Doomsday.

However, a film's total box office gross isn't the full story. Avengers movies are much more expensive to make than the average film, and therefore must generate much higher revenue to break even. Avengers: Doomsday's budget is estimated to be somewhere in the range of $500 and $600 million, meaning that it needs to make at least $1 billion just to break even.

Dune, on the other hand, isn't nearly as expensive. If Dune: Part Three keeps in line with the two previous films, its budget will fall somewhere between $150 and $200 million. This is still a lofty price tag, but it will be much easier for Warner Bros. to break even. Dune: Part Three is almost guaranteed to hit the $400 million benchmark to become financially successful, meaning that every dollar it generates thereafter goes straight back to the studio. With a much lower break-even point, Dune: Part Three may turn out to be the winner of 2026's biggest box office battle.

It remains to be seen whether Dune: Part Three will draw away some of the Avengers: Doomsday's audience on opening weekend. The best-case scenario for both films is that audiences choose to make them a double feature. Posts about "Dunesday" have already begun surfacing online, resembling the "Barbenheimer" furor that surrounded Barbie and Oppenheimer in 2023. Given that "Dunesday" falls in the 2026 holiday season, where ticket sales generally go up, the film's simultaneous release could still work in their favor.

Avengers: Doomsday and Dune: Part Three open in theaters on Dec. 18, 2026.