\n\t\u201cDunesday\u201d? \u201cDoomsdune\u201d? Whatever the nickname, cinema operators are bracing for a box office battle royale on Dec. 18.<\/p>\n
\n\tThat\u2019s when two of this year\u2019s biggest movies \u2014 Disney\u2019s Marvel adventure \u201cAvengers: Doomsday<\/a>\u201d and Warner Bros. and Legendary\u2019s sci-fi epic \u201cDune: Part III\u201d \u2014 are scheduled to face off in theaters. On one hand, it\u2019s an embarrassment of riches for a business that frequently complains there aren\u2019t enough exciting films to showcase. On the other, it seems like poor planning to expend so much firepower at once. It has left many in the industry to wonder if one of these blockbusters will end up relocating elsewhere on the calendar.<\/p>\n \n\tNeither film is expected to blink, which is surprising to box office watchers because there\u2019s so much overlap in the target audience. Although \u201cDoomsday\u201d has four-quadrant appeal, both of the tentpoles have male-skewing fanbases. After all, \u201cBarbenheimer\u201d was a classic case of counter-programming; the two films at the center of the cinematic phenomenon \u2014 Greta Gerwig\u2019s bright pink comedy \u201cBarbie\u201d and Christopher Nolan\u2019s extremely dark historical drama \u201cOppenheimer\u201d \u2014 catered to very different demographics<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cDunesday\u201d is only similar to \u201cBarbenheimer\u201d in the sense that nearly every actor in Hollywood is employed in one of the two films. \u201cDune 3\u201d stars Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Florence Pugh, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jason Momoa, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin and Rebecca Ferguson. Meanwhile \u201cDoomsday\u201d features a kitchen sink of Avengers and X-Men, including Robert Downey Jr. (returning not as Iron Man but as Doctor Doom), Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Paul Rudd, Anthony Mackie, Pugh (big weekend for the British star!), Patrick Stewart, Pedro Pascal, Ian McKellen, Letitia Wright and Channing Tatum.<\/p>\n \n\tAlthough \u201cDune 3\u201d was first to stake out the prime pre-Christmas release date (\u201cDoomsday\u201d was set for May 2025, but moved twice due to the strikes), the \u201cAvengers\u201d sequel has the leverage. Early tracking has been strong, according to sources, and \u201cDoomsday\u201d is widely predicted to be the year\u2019s highest grossing release. Disney even launched a live-countdown clock<\/a> that\u2019s ticking off the months, days, hours, minutes and seconds until the film\u2019s mid-December premiere. Yeah, Downey and crew aren\u2019t going anywhere.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cDune\u201d doesn\u2019t have quite the same box office pedigree, but the franchise has been rising in popularity. \u201cPart One,\u201d which opened in October 2021, earned $410 million globally while playing simultaneously on HBO Max. Then \u201cPart Two,\u201d which landed in November 2024, became a theatrical juggernaut with $714 million. \u201cPart Three\u201d has the benefit of Imax<\/a>, where it\u2019ll run exclusively for three weeks since director Denis Villeneuve shot the film with the company\u2019s cameras. \u201cDune\u201d and \u201cDoomsday\u201d are expected to split the remaining footprint of premium large format screens, including Dolby and ScreenX. (For what it\u2019s worth, \u201cBarbie\u201d shattered expectations<\/a> with only standard screens.)<\/p>\n