Avengers: Doomsday doesn't open until December 18. It's already broken a box office record nobody's broken before.

According to multiple trade reports cited by Koimoi, the film's North American advance ticket sales hit the $50 million mark on a single day, a presale figure no film has reportedly touched this far out from release. Bookings went live in July, right after the first trailer dropped, and the momentum hasn't let up since.

The milestone lands with extra weight because of what's waiting on the same date. December 18 is also when Dune 3 arrives, and the internet has already nicknamed the collision "Dunesday." Two of the year's most anticipated titles fighting for the same screens on the same Friday is the kind of scheduling chaos exhibitors dread and marketing teams secretly love.

Screen-share negotiations between the two studios are expected to get messy. Doomsday's early presale strength gives it use, but Dune 3 carries its own built-in audience off Denis Villeneuve's first two chapters. Neither side is backing down, and neither has to. December has room for both, at least on paper.

It doesn't stop there either. A week after the Doomsday-Dune 3 face-off, Jumanji: Open World lands in theatres, the fifth and reportedly final entry in that franchise. Three big swings inside eight days. Whatever else 2026 gets wrong at the multiplex, it isn't going to be a quiet December.

The pull for Doomsday is obvious. Robert Downey Jr. Is back in the MCU for the first time since Tony Stark's death closed out Avengers: Endgame in 2019, this time as Doctor Doom. Marvel is leaning hard into that reveal, and it's clearly working on ticket buyers. Endgame itself gets a September re-release with new footage tied to Doomsday, a move built to keep the nostalgia loop running right up to opening weekend.

Trade estimates now put Doomsday's opening weekend in the $260 million to $300 million range domestically. That's a big number by any measure, though it still falls short of Endgame's $357.1 million opening haul in North America. Globally, expectations sit around $1 billion for the opening frame, matching what Endgame itself managed at launch.

Whether Joe and Anthony Russo's film can close that gap with Endgame domestically, or whether Dune 3 eats into its screen count more than expected, won't be clear until the numbers actually start rolling in. For now, it's presale hype doing the talking, and December 18 is still 100 days out.