‘Dune: Part Three’ Presales Crash AMC’s Website as Domestic Opening Tracking Soars

Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Dune‘ trilogy has been building towards a significant box office event, and the latest presale numbers indicate that the excitement is at an all-time high as we approach the franchise’s grand finale. Each presale wave for the concluding chapter has outperformed the last, transforming what is typically a standard ticketing process into a highly anticipated event.

This trend continued this week as Warner Bros. and Legendary launched the most extensive presale wave for ‘Dune: Part Three’ yet, including IMAX 70mm, digital IMAX, Dolby Cinema, and other premium formats all at once. This marks the third presale rollout for the film this year, following an earlier wave in April that sold out its entire allotment of IMAX 70mm screenings in mere minutes.

The overwhelming demand proved too much for the ticketing systems to handle. AMC’s app and website experienced significant issues almost immediately after the wider presale window opened, with fans reporting long digital queues, rate-limit errors, and crashes during the checkout process. AMC CEO Adam Aron publicly acknowledged these disruptions.

“We have been selling enormous numbers of tickets today, but when any of our customers experience less than our best, it is just not right,” Aron stated, noting that the company had underestimated demand despite prior preparations for the ticket launch. He mentioned that AMC has allocated approximately $2 million in IT resources to tackle the ongoing ticketing challenges.

As presale momentum continues to grow, industry analysts are increasingly optimistic that ‘Dune: Part Three’ is on track to become the first installment in the franchise to surpass $100 million domestically on its opening weekend. Current tracking estimates suggest the film could open in the range of $125 million or more, a figure that would significantly exceed ‘Dune: Part Two’s’ $82.5 million domestic debut in 2024.

This trajectory reflects a franchise that has expanded with each new release. The original ‘Dune’ opened with a more modest performance in 2021 but ultimately grossed $410 million worldwide, while ‘Dune: Part Two’ more than doubled that total, concluding its run with $714 million globally in 2024.

Some analysts have cautioned that the app crashes and long wait times highlight ticketing infrastructure limitations as much as they do pure demand, yet the overall trend still indicates the strongest opening in franchise history. Regardless of how the final figures pan out, ‘Dune: Part Three’ is set to significantly outperform its predecessors right from the start.

Much of the presale excitement is tied to the film’s shared release date with Marvel’s ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ on December 18, a pairing that fans have dubbed “Dunesday.” ‘Dune: Part Three’ has secured exclusive access to domestic IMAX screens for its opening weeks, as the film was partially filmed using IMAX cameras, leaving ‘Doomsday’ to depend on other premium formats like Dolby Cinema instead.

This format exclusivity has heightened the urgency of the presale rollout, with Warner Bros. treating each new ticket wave as a marketing event complete with fresh trailer footage timed to the on-sale window. This pattern mirrors the frenzy earlier this year surrounding Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey,’ which also overwhelmed AMC’s website during its advance ticket sales before becoming the highest-grossing IMAX release in history.

With December still four months away and presale numbers already breaking records at nearly every checkpoint, ‘Dune: Part Three’ appears increasingly likely to deliver the biggest opening weekend the franchise has ever experienced. Whether this momentum holds once general ticket sales fully open remains to be seen, but for now, the demand alone has already made headlines well before a single frame has been shown in theaters.

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