Avengers: Doomsday release date may change as Marvel appears spooked by ‘Dunesday’

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Published Mar 31, 2026, 4:05 PM EDT

Is Marvel backing down from a box office brawl?

Ever since Marvel Studios announced that Dr. Doom would replace Kang as the next Avengers supervillain, the company has been trying to sell Victor Von Doom as the biggest Marvel big bad since Thanos, if not bigger. Given how much Marvel’s prestige has fallen in recent years, this was already a hard sell. And now Doom’s authority may soon be undermined even more if he’s seen to be backing down from a fight with a mere sandworm.

According to film critic and industry insider John Campea, now that Jumanji 3 has moved from a Dec. 11 release to Christmas day, Marvel Studios is considering moving the release date for Avengers: Doomsday to that newly open weekend. Currently, Doomsday is set to release in theaters on Dec. 18, the same day as Dune: Part Three. While there has been much online anticipation for "Dunesday," including from the likes of Robert Downey Jr., Dune: Part Three is at a much greater advantage in the box office showdown thanks to the fact that it has a three-week window where it will run in IMAX. Avengers: Doomsday, as it currently stands, will not appear in IMAX at all.

While there’s an argument to be made that the massive desert-scapes of Dune: Part Three make for a better fit in IMAX, the fact that Marvel’s biggest film in seven years won’t get an IMAX release is a tremendous letdown. When Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame released back in April 2018 and April 2019, no other big film dared to compete with those films for at least a couple of weeks afterward. Yet in 2026, Avengers: Doomsday may very well lose its opening day top spot to Dune: Part Three, especially with the latter’s IMAX advantage.

This is why Disney is reportedly considering the move. If Avengers: Doomsday releases on Dec. 11 instead, it will have a one-week window where it can be viewed in IMAX screen before Dune: Part Three takes the screens over a week later. While this is better than no IMAX at all, a week hardly feels like enough.

Overall, I do think this is a good thing, if not quite good enough. Being a die-hard MCU fan, I’ve weathered all of it, from mediocre movies to some downright dull Disney Plus shows. With Avengers: Doomsday, I was looking forward to escaping my Marvel malaise and returning to the MCU glory days, and there is no better way to do that than seeing a Marvel movie in IMAX. While one week hardly seems sufficient, if that's all I can get, I’ll take it and hopefully spend about three hours (or more) forgetting how far Marvel has fallen.

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