The official number is in, and it validates everything the showtime grids were whispering.
Per an exclusive from Variety, Avengers: Doomsday generated $16.5 million in advance ticket sales in its first day of availability, tied to Monday’s trailer launch.
Twice Deadpool And Wolverine, On A Fraction Of The Footprint
The multiplier is the story. Per Variety, that $16.5 million is twice the first-day figure for Deadpool & Wolverine, and the 2024 hit had every format and every screen on sale when it set its number.
Doomsday did double the business selling premium formats only, in just 1,000 domestic theaters. When the movie opens in December, it lands on more than 4,000 North American screens.
Deadpool & Wolverine turned its presale launch into a $211 million opening and a $1.3 billion run. Advance sales never translate one-to-one to opening weekends, but every early data point on Doomsday is pointing the same direction, and it’s up.
Variety Just Confirmed The Supply Story
On Monday, Cosmic Book News broke down how the sellout headlines were a supply story as much as a demand story, with thin premium inventory and theaters holding screens for Dune: Part Three. Variety’s reporting puts numbers on all of it.
The 1,000-theater figure quantifies the thin inventory. Premium showtimes for December 17 and 18 are already largely sold out per studio insiders, and exhibitors are reportedly adding more screenings for Christmas Day and beyond, exactly the showtime expansion we flagged to watch for.
Variety also confirms the IMAX situation and what Infinity Vision actually is: Dune: Part Three holds the entire IMAX footprint exclusively for three weeks because Denis Villeneuve shot with IMAX cameras, and Infinity Vision is not a new technology but a certification that theaters meet Disney’s technical standards. In other words, a label, which is what the amenity tags on those 3D listings already gave away.
The $50 Bundle Is Already Gone
Meanwhile, Fandango announced Tuesday that the Infinity Vision Launch Bundle has officially sold out.
The sellout notice also revealed the price: $50 for one Infinity Vision ticket, a World Premiere Sweepstakes entry, and the two mystery items, which Fandango’s own fine print already outed as an Avengers mask and cloak set. The Doom cosplay kit sold out in about a day.
The Dunesday Stakes
Variety is now openly framing December 18 as “Dunesday,” and the math explains why. The three biggest collective box office weekends ever were built on Endgame ($402 million), Infinity War ($314 million), and The Force Awakens ($313 million). Two tentpoles opening on the same date, both selling premium scarcity, is how you take a run at that list.
And Marvel still has cards to play: the trailer just crossed 500 million views in 24 hours per trackers, standard-format tickets haven’t even gone on sale, and the newer trailer is still waiting for Saturday’s Hall H panel.
Cosmic Book News will be inside Hall H on Saturday. Until then, follow every update at our Avengers: Doomsday hub.
Avengers: Doomsday opens December 18, 2026, opposite Dune: Part Three.
