Spider-Man: Brand New Day has spent the last two weeks rewriting the record books, and for a while it looked like nothing else this year would come close. That has now changed, and the challenger is exactly who you would expect.
Avengers: Doomsday put its first tickets on sale on July 20, alongside the release of its first official trailer. Those early sales, limited to premium screens under Disney’s new Infinity Vision banner, pulled in $16.5 million in the opening 24 hours (via Variety).
That figure was already double what Deadpool & Wolverine managed on its first day in 2024, despite that film having every format available. On August 14, booking opened to the general public. According to reports, the film has since pushed past $20 million in opening day pre-sales (via @GlobalBoxOffice/X).
Reports also suggest that this initial number puts Doomsday on track to become the second film of 2026 to open somewhere between $260 million and $300 million or more, after Brand New Day (via @GlobalBoxOffice/X).
Avengers: Doomsday Numbers Could Beat Spider-Man: Brand New Day
To understand where Avengers: Doomsday is headed, look at what Spider-Man: Brand New Day did. Destin Daniel Cretton’s film opened on July 31, 2026, with $168 million on its first day, the biggest single day any movie has ever posted in North America.
It has since climbed to $704.5 million domestically and $1.8 billion worldwide, making it the sixth film ever to cross $700 million in North America. Beating that requires a genuinely enormous opening, and Doomsday is one of the very few titles capable of it.
The Russo brothers are bringing back Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom and Chris Evans as Steve Rogers, and no Avengers film with this combo has ever finished below $1 billion worldwide.
Because the release shifted from May to December 18, IMAX screens are committed to Dune: Part Three over the holidays, which is why Disney built the Infinity Vision program in the first place (via The Walt Disney Company). Doomsday is posting these numbers without its biggest premium format, which arguably makes them more impressive rather than less.
Could Brand New Day Mark the Start of Marvel’s Box Office Recovery?
Tom Holland in a still from Spider-Man: Brand New Day | Credits: Marvel Studios/Sony Pictures Releasing
The last few years have been uneven for Marvel Studios. Deadpool & Wolverine was a genuine phenomenon at $1.33 billion, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 performed well, but attempts to build audiences around newer heroes and villains have struggled to reach the same heights. The question has been whether the problem was the brand itself or the individual films.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is the strongest argument yet that the brand is fine. It reached $1 billion worldwide in six days, second only to Endgame. Its second weekend brought in $145 million, one of only eight second weekends in history to top $100 million.
Holland’s solo films have earned around $5.6 billion between them, so Doomsday is the real test for Marvel. It asks whether audiences will show up for the wider MCU rather than its single most reliable star. The pre-sales suggest they will.
Do you think Avengers: Doomsday can top Brand New Day? Let us know in the comments below!
Avengers: Doomsday releases in theatres on December 18, 2026.
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