UPDATE: AMC’s CEO has now apologized for the meltdown, revealing that Dune: Part Three ticketing traffic ran roughly triple what the chain saw at the Spider-Man: Brand New Day launch, with only premium formats even on sale.
Warner Bros. and Legendary opened the widest wave of Dune: Part Three presales yet on Tuesday morning, and the ticketing infrastructure did not survive the hour.
IMAX 70mm, digital IMAX, Dolby Cinema and the rest of the premium large format tier all went live at 9 a.m. PT, timed to a new 33-second spot cut specifically to sell the on-sale.
What followed was the same scene The Odyssey produced earlier this summer: crashed apps, hour-long digital queues, and resale listings before lunch.
What Actually Went On Sale
Three separate things opened at once, and the distinction matters.
Dune Insider early screenings. Fans who signed up at dunemovie.com/insider get the film before the general public. December 14 is IMAX 70mm only, with six theaters listed on IMAX’s site at launch. December 15 expands to digital IMAX. December 17 opens the remaining premium large formats.
A third round of IMAX 70mm opening-weekend tickets. Dark Horizons counts this as the third batch, following waves in July 2025 and April 2026.
PLF tickets for the first time. Dolby and other premium screens are now selling for opening weekend and beyond.
General admission tickets for standard screens are still not on sale. That wave comes closer to release.
The New Footage
The spot is short and it is not a trailer. It is a half-minute of new imagery attached to a ticketing pitch, with Warner Bros. selling it under the line “Secure your path, seal your fate.”
The cuts are fast enough that nothing gets spoiled, which is the point. Warner Bros. has been rationing this movie’s footage since CinemaCon, and every drop has been engineered to move tickets rather than explain the plot.
The Sites Went Down
Forbes reported a spike in AMC app outage complaints as the tickets dropped, with users hitting rate-limit errors and a “Failed to fetch” message, and the app crashing on launch for some.
Conditions reportedly improved roughly an hour after the release.
Fandango’s digital queue ran past an hour.
Fans on ResetEra described bouncing between apps for hours, with only amctheatres.com working after repeated refreshes, and multiple posters saying these were harder to secure than the Avengers: Doomsday tickets that went up a few weeks ago.
The scalpers arrived on schedule. Forbes noted IMAX 70mm seats already listed on eBay at $200 apiece. That is restrained by the standard set in April, when the first 70mm wave produced listings pushing $1,000.
This is now a pattern, not an accident. The Odyssey did it, Avengers: Doomsday did it in July, and Dune did it Tuesday. Studios have figured out that scarcity plus a countdown produces a news cycle, and the exhibition chains have not figured out how to build a checkout that survives it.
Every IMAX 70mm Location
This is the whole reason the on-sale turns into a bloodsport. IMAX 70mm is a tiny footprint, and it cannot be expanded on demand, because the prints and the projectors do not exist in quantity.
United States (25):
- Arizona — Phoenix: Harkins Arizona Mills
- California — Los Angeles: AMC Universal CityWalk, Regal Irvine Spectrum, Regal Edwards Ontario Palace, Regal LA Live, TCL Chinese Theater; Sacramento: Esquire; San Francisco: AMC Metreon, Regal Hacienda Crossings
- Colorado — Colorado Springs: Cinemark Carefree Circle; Denver: Regal UA Colorado Center
- Florida — Miami: AutoNation
- Georgia — Atlanta: Regal Mall of Georgia
- Illinois — Chicago: Cinemark Woodridge
- Indiana — Indianapolis: Indiana State Museum
- Michigan — Grand Rapids: Celebration! Cinema Grand Rapids North
- Nevada — Las Vegas: Brenden Palms
- New York — New York: AMC Lincoln Square; Rochester: Cinemark Tinseltown
- Pennsylvania — Philadelphia: Regal King of Prussia
- Rhode Island — Providence: Apple Cinemas Providence Place
- Tennessee — Chattanooga: Tennessee Aquarium; Nashville: Regal Opry Mills
- Texas — Dallas: Cinemark Dallas; San Antonio: AMC Rivercenter
Canada (9):
- Calgary, AB — Scotiabank Theatre Chinook
- Edmonton, AB — Scotiabank Edmonton
- Halifax, NS — Scotiabank Theatre Halifax
- Montréal, QC — Cinéma Banque Scotia Montréal
- Regina, SK — Kramer IMAX Theatre
- Vaughan, ON — Cineplex Cinemas Vaughan
- Mississauga, ON — Cineplex Cinemas Mississauga Square One
- Langley, BC — Cineplex Cinemas Langley
- Richmond, BC — SilverCity Riverport Cinemas
Add one in the United Kingdom and one in Australia and the current worldwide total sits at 36, per IMAX’s own listings. TheWrap put the number at 38 as of last weekend, so the count is still moving. More U.K. and international locations are expected to open.
So How Well Are Tickets Actually Selling?
Here is the honest answer: nobody has released a number for Dune: Part Three, and both studios declined to comment when TheWrap asked. We may know more after the first 24 hours.
What exists is sourced, not official.
TheWrap reported over the weekend that theatrical sources describe dozens of IMAX 70mm sellouts already on the table for opening weekend, with demand strong enough to support round-the-clock showtimes through Christmas and past it.
The April wave sold out all 19 locations it covered. Tuesday’s wave sold out fast enough that outlets were writing sellout stories within hours.
That is a real signal, but it is a signal about supply as much as demand. Thirty-six 70mm screens running one show a day will sell out for any event movie. The number that will actually matter, wide presales across standard screens, has not started yet.
About Dune: Part Three
From Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures comes Dune: Part Three, bringing Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Denis Villeneuve’s epic trilogy to a breathtaking conclusion.
Dune: Part Three is set nearly two decades after Paul Atreides seized control of the Imperium. Now a ruthless Emperor, Paul must face the consequences of his reign as old allies return, terrifying new threats emerge, and betrayal lurks in every shadow. Haunted by visions of Imperial collapse and the reappearance of his long-lost love, Paul is drawn into a sweeping conspiracy, with Chani at the heart of its unfolding mystery. As rebellion brews and enemies close in, Paul must confront the true cost of power and the fate of those he loves the most.
The film stars Oscar nominee Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Jason Momoa, Oscar nominee Florence Pugh, Rebecca Ferguson, Isaach de Bankolé, with Oscar nominee Charlotte Rampling, with Anya Taylor-Joy, and Robert Pattinson, and Oscar winner Javier Bardem.
Villeneuve directs from a screenplay by Villeneuve and Brian K. Vaughan, based on the novels written by Frank Herbert. The film is produced by Oscar nominees Mary Parent, Cale Boyter, Villeneuve and Tanya Lapointe, and Joe Caracciolo, and executive produced by Joshua Grode, Thomas Tull, Herbert W. Gains, Brian Herbert, Byron Merritt, Kim Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson, Richard P. Rubinstein, John Harrison and Jessica Derhammer.
Joining Villeneuve behind the camera are Oscar-winning director of photography Linus Sandgren, Oscar-winning production designer Patrice Vermette, Oscar-winning editor Joe Walker, Oscar-nominated costume designer Jacqueline West, Oscar-nominated casting director Francine Maisler, and Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer.
Dune: Part Three opens only in theaters and IMAX across North America on December 18, 2026, and internationally beginning December 16, 2026. The film is distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures and in China by Legendary East.
Follow every update at our Dune: Part Three hub.
