Deadline’s Saturday box office report includes another important acknowledgment of the Christmas showdown: IMAX remains committed to Warner Bros. and Legendary’s Dune: Part Three.
As CBN previously reported, that leaves Avengers: Doomsday opening December 18 without the biggest screens in the business.
Theaters were already holding premium screens for Dune 3 weeks ago while Doomsday tickets sold out around them. Deadline’s report now backs up what those theater listings were already showing.
Spider-Man Just Proved Marvel Does Not Need IMAX
Deadline does not view the missing IMAX screens as a disaster for Disney. Its point is that Spider-Man: Brand New Day reaching record levels without the format should give Marvel plenty of confidence heading into Christmas.
Spidey just faced the same situation.
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey held every domestic IMAX screen through Spidey’s opening, and Brand New Day still delivered the biggest opening day in box office history at $168 million.
The weekend finished at an estimated $355 million, the second-biggest opening ever and barely $2 million behind Avengers: Endgame‘s all-time record, with Monday’s actuals still deciding whether the crown falls.
Endgame set its records with full IMAX support. Spidey is threatening them without a single domestic IMAX screen.
Per Deadline, premium large formats accounted for 24 percent of Brand New Day‘s weekend, while 3D added another 17 percent. Everyone else simply bought tickets for regular 2D screenings.
The missing format did not limit the movie’s ceiling. The audience bought whatever seats were available.
IMAX Keeps Choosing Nolan And Villeneuve Over Marvel
A clear pattern has now emerged twice in six months.
Nolan locked down IMAX for The Odyssey, leaving Spider-Man to rely on other formats. Denis Villeneuve and Dune: Part Three already had the IMAX screens locked for Christmas, leaving Doomsday to rely on Dolby Cinema and the other premium formats, which Disney is referring to as “Infinity Vision.”
IMAX continues prioritizing filmmakers who design their movies around the format, while Marvel gets moved to Dolby Cinema and the other premium large-format screens they are now promoting as “Infinity Vision.”
Disney may not love losing IMAX, but whether it actually damages the box office is no longer much of a mystery. Brand New Day answered the question with a wheelbarrow full of records.
Doomsday Is Already Selling Without Every Screen Available
Demand for Doomsday was never in doubt.
Presales cleared $16.5 million on day one, twice what Deadpool & Wolverine did. Those numbers came from premium-only inventory while theaters were still holding screens back.
The trailer generated 500 million views in 24 hours, and general ticket sales are now open five months ahead of release, with sellouts already stacking up.
Doomsday will still have Dolby Cinema and every other major premium large format in December. It simply will not have IMAX, just like the Marvel movie now rewriting the record books.
Spider-Man And The Odyssey Just Previewed Christmas
The Christmas showdown has been set for months and puts Doomsday against Dune: Part Three, a matchup Kevin Feige has already been asked about directly.
This weekend offered a preview of how it could play out: a Marvel juggernaut dominating without IMAX while an auteur-driven epic controls the format.
Both movies won. Spidey attacked the record books, while Nolan delivered the best holds of his career on the premium screens.
If December follows the same pattern, the two biggest movies of the holiday season can both feast, and the fatigue crowd gets buried one more time.
Follow every update at our Avengers: Doomsday hub. Avengers: Doomsday opens December 18, 2026, opposite Dune: Part Three.
