Look, we all knew Doomsday was going to sell. But now there’s a number, and the number is genuinely eye-catching: $16.5 million in US advance ticket sales after a single day, reported exclusively by Variety. Marvel put tickets on sale to coincide with the launch of the first full trailer, and audiences responded immediately.
Why $16.5 million in a day is a bigger number than it looks
The headline figure is impressive mostly because of what it excludes. Those presales came from premium formats in just 1,000 domestic theatres, per Variety — not the more than 4,000 North American screens the film will occupy when it opens the weekend of 18 December. It also excludes Imax entirely.
For context, Variety reports that Doomsday’s first-day presales are twice as high as the opening-day figure for 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine — and that comparison counted all formats and every screen on sale, not just premium auditoriums. Deadpool & Wolverine went on to open to $211 million and finished with $1.3 billion worldwide, so being double its presale pace on premium screens alone is a strong signal.
Studio insiders told Variety that premium showtimes for Thursday 17 and Friday 18 December are already largely sold out in the US, with exhibitors adding more screenings for Christmas Day and beyond. Advance sales don’t guarantee final opening numbers, but the demand curve here is steep.
Why there’s no Imax, and what “Infinity Vision” actually is
Doomsday won’t get Imax at launch because Dune: Part III, opening the very same day, has locked the entire Imax footprint exclusively for three weeks — a consequence of Denis Villeneuve shooting the film with Imax cameras. That same-day collision has already earned a nickname: “Dunesday,” which Variety suggests could produce one of the biggest collective box-office weekends in history.
With Imax off the table and premium large formats increasingly driving ticket demand, Marvel introduced something called “Infinity Vision.” Per Disney, via Variety, it is not a new projection or sound technology — it is a certification that guarantees participating auditoriums meet rigorous technical standards. A quality-assurance badge, then, rather than a new format to chase.
What it means for booking tickets in the UAE
Avengers: Doomsday lands in UAE cinemas on 18 December 2026, the same day as the global release. The $16.5 million figure is US advance sales only, from premium formats in around 1,000 theatres — it is not a worldwide number and does not include standard screens or UAE cinemas.
No UAE chain, ticketing platform, or AED pricing has been confirmed for the film yet, so there’s no local presale data to act on right now. But the pattern is familiar: the 39th MCU film, directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, stacked with returning heroes and Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom, arriving on the same day as Dune: Part III. If premium screens are selling out this fast in the US off a trailer alone, opening-night premium showtimes here are worth grabbing the moment local bookings open rather than the week of release.
Our sister site IGN Middle East has more on how the presale start compares to other Marvel launches, and if you want to see what the fuss is about, we broke down the first proper Doomsday trailer and the fan theories it kicked off. It’s shaping up to be one of the busiest cinema weeks of the year.