{"id":534623,"date":"2026-03-20T11:09:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T11:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/534623\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T11:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T11:09:08","slug":"hollywood-reacts-to-dune-part-three-and-avengers-doomsday-same-day-scheduling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/534623\/","title":{"rendered":"Hollywood reacts to Dune: Part Three and Avengers: Doomsday same-day scheduling"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this week<\/a>, Warner Bros. and Legendary rolled out the first trailer and posters for Denis Villeneuve\u2019s\u00a0Dune: Part Three, doubling down and locking in on something that cinematic schedule observers have had their eye on for several months at this point: The fact that Villeneuve\u2019s grand finale to his sand-heavy space epics will be arriving in theaters on December 18, 2026\u2014the same day as Marvel\u2019s\u00a0Avengers: Doomsday, with neither film apparently inclined to budge from the spot.<\/p>\n

This is, to put it mildly, a rarity in a world where the movie studios have gotten pretty good at getting out of each other\u2019s way when there\u2019s money on the line. Everybody brings up Barbenheimer, of course<\/a>, but the whole point of that July 2023 phenomenon was in juxtaposition: There was a delightful dichotomy in choosing between the candy-colored comedy and the \u201cLet\u2019s recreate the Trinity Test\u201d film that isn\u2019t necessarily there between two big science-fiction action-adventures with at least a fair amount of surface-level similar appeal. Instead, it\u2019s likely to be a straight-up slugfest, as Villeneuve faces off against the might of Joe and Anthony Russo\u2019s return to their Marvel throne. (It also, as Variety\u00a0helpfully notes, means that an absolutely ridiculous amount of top Hollywood talent is going to have a new movie in theaters on the exact same day; it\u2019s actually kind of shocking that, as far as we can tell, the only performer overlapping between the two casts is Florence Pugh.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Reactions to this sudden glut has been mixed:\u00a0Variety\u00a0ran a piece this week<\/a> suggesting that theater chains will be happy to play host to the battle;\u00a0other\u00a0movies might not be happy about getting squeezed out by these two films taking up a huge percentage of screens, but a theater industry starved for big hits will be happy to play host to a theatrical weekend likely to rank as one of the most lucrative of all time. (The top three owe their successes to a single film apiece,, two of which were directed by two of our participants here: Avengers: Infinity War\u00a0in 2018 and the even more successful Endgame\u00a0in 2019.) (Star Wars: The Force Awakens ranked third; Barbenheimer was\u00a0fourth.)\u00a0The Hollywood Reporter\u00a0did manage to find at least a few anonymous theater execs<\/a> annoyed that Warner Bros. and Disney aren\u2019t spreading the financial love around a bit more, though, bemoaning that \u201cSomeone\u2019s gotta move\u201d in response to the double-booking. (Almost certainly not going to happen, though: Dune\u00a0staked the date out first, only for\u00a0Doomsday\u00a0to hop there after initial plans to arrive in May of 2025. With posters printed and countdown clocks running<\/a>, it\u2019s unlikely either film will blink.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

For theater nerds, there\u2019s also the matter of the IMAX of it all:\u00a0Dune\u00a0snapped up the exclusive rights to the big, big screens almost immediately, denying Marvel the \u201cfree money\u201d those screenings generate. Neither side seems especially worried, themselves, though; Robert Downey Jr. was joking about \u201cDunesday\u201d back in January<\/a>, and the sheer fact that neither side has been willing to budge suggests they both think there\u2019s enough profit for both movies to successfully mine the run-up to Christmas 2026. It\u2019ll be interesting to see how it all shakes out in reality, once the third week of December finally rolls around and these two movies obliterate every other thing trying to exist in theaters.<\/p>\n

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