Dune: Part Three Smashes the IMAX Presale Record The Odyssey Set — 33,000 Tickets Gone in 24 Hours
The movie is still two months away, and it is already winning. London's BFI IMAX — the biggest screen in the UK and the one place where presale numbers get compared like sports scores — sold 33,000 advance tickets for Dune: Part Three in a single day. That is a new first-day record for the venue, and the film it pushed aside is Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, the biggest movie of the summer. Tickets for Denis Villeneuve's trilogy finale went on sale this week, and fans are not waiting around.
Quick answers first
| What | Details |
|---|---|
| Movie | Dune: Part Three — the closing film of Denis Villeneuve's Dune trilogy, based on Frank Herbert's Dune Messiah |
| Studio | Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures |
| US release date | Friday, December 18, 2026, in theaters and IMAX (the international rollout starts December 16) |
| Director | Denis Villeneuve |
| Lead cast | Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Florence Pugh, Anya Taylor-Joy, Rebecca Ferguson, Robert Pattinson, Jason Momoa and Javier Bardem |
| What is new | BFI IMAX sold 33,000 advance tickets in 24 hours, worth more than £880,000 — a first-day presale record for the venue, reported by Deadline |
| Tickets | On sale now in the US and worldwide; a new TV spot and four posters dropped with the launch |
The record, in plain numbers
Deadline reported the figures, and every other outlet has been chasing them since. In its first 24 hours on sale, Dune: Part Three took more than £880,000 in advance sales at BFI IMAX alone. The venue's all-time first-day ranking now reads like a hall of fame: Dune: Part Three at £880,000, The Odyssey at £750,000, Dune: Part Two at £366,000, Oppenheimer at £254,000 and Avatar: Fire and Ash at £116,000.
One screen, one day, no hiding behind worldwide totals — that is why the industry watches this particular number. Part Three did not edge past The Odyssey, it cleared it by £130,000, and it more than doubled what Part Two managed at the same screen. For context on what a start like this can turn into, The Odyssey went on to sell more than 100,000 admissions at BFI IMAX and became the highest-grossing film in the venue's history.
The rush did not start this week
The signs were there months ago. Back in April, three opening-weekend screenings at BFI IMAX sold out in under an hour. Two preview screenings sold out earlier this month, with reports of more than 100,000 people joining the online queue. The BFI is leaning all the way in: it will run IMAX 70mm previews from December 15, and it is bringing the first two films back to the same screen from December 11, with Part Two shown on IMAX 70mm film.
Warner Bros. fed the fire at the right moment — tickets went on sale alongside a new TV spot and four fresh posters, and the studio's US presale numbers are still coming in. Nothing official has been published on the American side yet.
The film itself
Part Three adapts Dune Messiah and jumps the story forward — the film stretches the time skip to seventeen years after Part Two. Paul Atreides rules as Emperor now, and the story is about the cost of that crown: old allies return, a conspiracy closes in around him, and Chani sits at the heart of it. First-look images this month showed an older, scarred Paul, and the new footage of him beside his sister Alia, played by Anya Taylor-Joy.
The cast is stacked. Chalamet and Zendaya lead, Florence Pugh returns as Princess Irulan, Rebecca Ferguson is back as Lady Jessica, and Jason Momoa returns as Hayt. Robert Pattinson joins as the new villain, Scytale — which gives this record a fun twist, since Pattinson also stars in The Odyssey, the film Part Three just beat. Villeneuve directs from a script he wrote with Brian K. Vaughan, Hans Zimmer is back on the score, and Villeneuve has been clear that this film closes his trilogy.
December 18 is a genuine fight
Part Three does not get its release day to itself. Marvel's Avengers: Doomsday opens on the exact same Friday — a head-to-head fans have nicknamed Dunesday, and neither studio has moved. We have the full Doomsday picture in our Avengers: Doomsday guide. Two event films, one weekend, and a fight for premium screens and opening-weekend bragging rights.
The bar inside the Dune family is high too. Dune: Part Two made about $714 million worldwide in 2024, and it did that without a same-day Marvel giant in its way. Presale records in October do not guarantee anything in December — but they are the loudest early signal a film can send.
Confirmed vs not yet known
Confirmed: the December 18, 2026 release date; tickets on sale now; the BFI IMAX first-day record and ranking, as reported by Deadline from the venue's figures; the cast listed above; the IMAX 70mm previews and the return of the first two films at BFI in December.
Not yet known: US presale totals — Warner Bros. has not published any, so any American number you see floating around today is a guess. The same goes for opening-weekend forecasts this far out. And while Warner Bros. films reach Max after their theater run as a rule, the studio has not announced a streaming date for Part Three.
Good to know for US fans
Dune: Part Three opens Friday, December 18, 2026, in theaters and IMAX across the US, and advance tickets are already on sale at the big chains and ticketing apps. If the London rush is anything to go by, opening-weekend IMAX seats will be the first to go — the BFI runs the film on IMAX 70mm, and true 70mm IMAX screens in the US are a short list, so book early if that format matters to you. International audiences get a two-day head start, with rollout beginning December 16.
Our verdict
This is what a healthy event movie looks like before release: real tickets, sold early, at the format fans care about most. Beating a Christopher Nolan record at Nolan's favorite game — the IMAX presale — is the strongest opening move Part Three could have made. The December 18 clash with Doomsday is still a risk no record can erase, but right now the momentum is all Arrakis.
