Dune: Part Three has locked in its 19th December release date, and Marvel doesn’t appear to be moving Avengers: Doomsday, either… An unstoppable force may be about to meet an immovable object. When Denis Villeneuve’s Brutalist space opera sequel Dune: Part Three was announced in 2024, a release date of the 19th December 2026 was ... Avengers: Doomsday and Dune: Part Three are still releasing on the same day, and nobody wants to budge
Dune: Part Three has locked in its 19th December release date, and Marvel doesn’t appear to be moving Avengers: Doomsday, either…
An unstoppable force may be about to meet an immovable object. When Denis Villeneuve’s Brutalist space opera sequel Dune: Part Three was announced in 2024, a release date of the 19th December 2026 was chosen – a date that Warner Bros and Legendary have stuck with since.
Over at Marvel, meanwhile, a late pivot in branding and villain saw Avengers: The Kang Dynasty hastily renamed Avengers: Doomsday. What was once a May 2025 release date was then pushed to the 19th December 2026 – yep, the exact same day as Dune: Part Three.
These are, it goes without saying, two of the most anticipated films of 2026 – and among the most expensive. Dune: Part Three is reported to have a budget of about $200m – an increase on its two predecessors, though a chunk of that money will be going on growing star salaries as well as expensive location filming and visual effects.
Speaking of star salaries, bumper pay cheques are part of the reason why Avengers: Doomsday may wind up as the most expensive film ever made. There are estimates that its budget will amount to around $500m, with some more wilder claims saying it’ll nudge towards $1bn including marketing, which we find hard to believe.
What’s similarly unbelievable is Robert Downey Jr’s reported salary, which is said to be more than $100m. The Russo brothers, who are the film’s directors, are also said to be getting $80m for their work.
All of this is a lengthy way of saying that there’s potentially billions riding on the success of these two films. And, at present, both Disney/Marvel and Warner/Legendary are in something of a tricky position.
Read more: December 1984’s incredibly strange box office weekend
Marvel might have assumed that, Avengers being the cultural behemoth that it is, Warner Bros would blink and shift Dune The Third to a different date. But Warner has already booked coveted spots on IMAX screens in the US and elsewhere. Disney/Marvel will still have the run of regular cinema rooms, but the film will miss out on the premium ticket prices that large format movies command.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, some cinema owners in the US have argued that, while it could potentially be a ‘win-win’ situation for them, others have argued that “Someone’s gotta move.”
“That’s a level of overwhelm that doesn’t make sense,” one cinema rep said. “Especially after the last few years [of cinemas struggling]. An Avengers movie and Dune 3 are both sure things.”
While some might be hoping for a repeat of Barbenheimer – that pop cultural moment when Barbie and Oppenheimer fought for attention in the summer of 2023 – the situation here is somewhat different. There’s more overlap between Avengers and Dune's target audiences for one thing, and more riding on the success of these films for another.
The potential pitfall for Disney is its own streaming service. The Avengers name alone is sure to get the Marvel faithful into cinemas on opening weekend; more casual fans may opt for Dune instead, reasoning that Doomsday will end up on Disney+ within a few weeks in any case.
Assuming neither film moves between now and December (there’s still a way to go…), it’s possible that both films will make a tidy profit. As THR points out, major films have shared the same release window before and still succeeded – it points to the summer of 1989, where Batman, Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade and Lethal Weapon 2 all came out close to one another and still made huge sums.
But we also live in a different cultural climate from the late 80s. Going to the cinema is expensive and other distractions (YouTube, TikTok, the threat of World War III) are more numerous. Unless someone budges, the price of staying put could prove costly for one studio or both.
Avengers: Doomsday and Dune: Part Three are both in cinemas on the 19th December. For now.
(For an example of a time when releasing more than one high-profile film releasing on the same day had unexpectedly grim results, head back to 1984 with our video below…)
