Avengers: Doomsday has already matched Supergirl’s entire box office — and it’s not even out yet

If you need proof that the cinema game has changed, just look at what’s happening with the superhero crowd in 2026. The gulf between monster hits and everything else has become impossible to ignore. Nowhere is this split more obvious than in the world of capes and CGI – where one title is selling tickets months in advance, basically making every other franchise look like a side-hustle.

Let’s start with Avengers: Doomsday. This thing doesn’t even hit cinemas till 18 December, and Forbes reports it’s already stormed past $125 million in worldwide presales. Not exaggerating – that's the kind of number studios usually pray for after weeks in release, not nine weeks out. Just for comparison, those early ticket sales have all but matched what DC’s Supergirl managed in its entire global run at the box office this summer: $126.4 million.

Avengers: Doomsday has banked over $125 million in presales before release, nearly equalling Supergirl’s full theatrical take.

Marvel goes event-only, DC gets reality-checked

The US is doing heavy lifting here, with an estimated $65 million in American advance sales alone. That’s not just good, it’s ahead of the pace set by Spider-Man: Brand New Day when that one smashed the all-time record with $150 million in presales – a record Spidey didn’t reach until its own opening week. Germany reportedly sold 118,000 day-one tickets, which for German standards actually beats Avengers: Endgame in that market. Projections for Doomsday’s opening weekend in North America range from $250 million to $300 million. If that holds, it’s not so much breaking records as burning the ledgers. Usual caveat, though: box office estimates at this stage tend to be about as reliable as a weather forecast three months out – best taken with a bucket of salt.

It’s an embarrassment of riches for Marvel, yes, but the wider takeaway is about what gets people off their sofas these days. Event films like this – big names, massive spectacle, the sense that you’ll miss out if you wait – are in a league of their own now. All the other (often very expensive) superhero content ends up playing to half-empty rooms, regardless of how much the studio spent or what the Rotten Tomatoes score says.

DC’s new maths: small budget, sensible wins

Don’t panic too much for DC, though. After the Supergirl flop, they pivoted into something smarter (and riskier): Clayface. This $44 million, R-rated body horror flick opened in late October, and according to the trades is set to double its own budget within two weekends. That’s impressive territory that the much costlier Supergirl never sniffed. In other words, the audience hasn’t gone anywhere – but your budget needs to be realistic, because there are no longer guaranteed profits just for having a logo and a cape. Over at Marvel, they learned that the expensive way after the early, disjointed days of the Multiverse Saga.

All star moves and nostalgia tactics

The irresistible momentum behind Doomsday isn’t really about Marvel beating DC this round – it’s about playing every nostalgia card possible. The Russo brothers are back at the helm, Robert Downey Jr. is back too (though this time he’s the villain, which is a twist after the Kang plan crashed and burned), and they’re wheeling out the Fox-era X-Men faces for a mega-crossover story. The marketing is essentially running the Endgame playbook again, and audiences are responding exactly how studio executives dream they might. Oh, and it’s opening the same day as Dune: Part Three – but with Dune 3’s reported presale at just $25 million, Warner Bros. may as well bring a butter knife to a swordfight here. That being said, Villeneuve’s Dune films have always excelled with slower, steadier runs – but opening weekend news headlines are clearly going to be dominated by Marvel.