UPDATE Aug. 20: The schedule gaps have their answer. Dune: Part Three opened its own premium sales on August 18, and IMAX 70mm, digital IMAX and the full premium large format tier went live at once. AMC’s app buckled under it, and CEO Adam Aron later said ticketing traffic ran roughly triple the Spider-Man: Brand New Day launch on premium inventory alone. The screens theaters were holding back in July were being held for a movie with that kind of demand behind it. Follow every update at our Dune: Part Three hub.
The sellout posts are already flying, and they’re true as far as they go. The real December 18 story is hiding in the showtime grid.
Avengers: Doomsday tickets went on sale Monday morning and premium showings started filling immediately. But a closer look at what theaters actually put on sale shows the sellouts are a supply story as much as a demand story, and the missing supply has a name: Dune: Part Three.
Selling Out, With An Asterisk
Start with what’s actually on sale. Monday’s launch covers Infinity Vision screenings only, and only select showtimes from the Thursday, December 17 previews through December 30. Standard-format tickets haven’t been announced at all.
Demand is real. The trailer pulled 2.8 million views and nearly 987,000 likes in its first two hours, and Fandango built a full event around the sale: a world premiere sweepstakes for anyone buying through November 9, a launch bundle with mystery collectibles, and a custom Doomsday seat map at checkout.
But “selling out” hits different when the inventory is this thin to begin with.
One RPX Screening For The Biggest Movie Of The Year
Cosmic Book News checked the grid at a Regal RPX location, and the pattern jumps out fast.
For Thursday’s preview night, the theater lists exactly one RPX screening of the biggest movie of the year. It’s nearly sold out. The other two preview showings are 3D, and those still have seats.
Friday, opening day proper, shows two RPX screenings separated by eight hours.
An eight-hour hole in the premium schedule on opening day of an Avengers movie is not an accident. That’s real estate being held for something.
The Hole In The Schedule Is Shaped Like Dune 3
Here’s the context that explains it. Warner Bros. locked up IMAX for Dune: Part Three for three weeks around the shared December 18 date, which is why Infinity Vision exists in the first place.
But IMAX was only round one. Every other premium screen in America, the RPX and Dolby and 4DX houses, is now the battleground, and exhibitors are planning for two tentpoles at once. The gaps in Doomsday‘s premium grid are where Dune: Part Three showtimes will live.
Theaters can add showings later as demand proves out, and they will. But the opening inventory is the tell: nobody is giving Doomsday wall-to-wall premium coverage, because nobody can afford to shortchange Villeneuve either.
Worth noting, too: the Infinity Vision name shows up as an amenity tag even on the 3D listings. It’s a certification label stretched across formats, not a single premium standard, which makes the scarcity of true large-format slots the thing to actually watch.
What To Watch Next
Fandango hasn’t released first-day numbers yet. When it does, the yardstick is Endgame, which broke the all-time first-day presale record in six hours back in 2019 while crashing ticketing sites along the way. Doomsday doing it with a fraction of the inventory would be its own headline.
Also on the watch list: how fast chains add Infinity Vision showtimes as sellouts stack up, when standard-format tickets finally go on sale, and what happens to those schedule gaps once Dune: Part Three opens its own premium sales.
The December 18 showdown isn’t just two movies opening on the same day anymore. It’s two movies splitting the same screens, and you can already see the war in the showtime grid.
Marvel’s Hall H panel lands Saturday. Cosmic Book News will be inside. Until then, follow every update at our Avengers: Doomsday hub.
Avengers: Doomsday opens December 18, 2026, opposite Dune: Part Three.
