Dune: Part Three Ticket Surge Overwhelms AMC App

AMC Theatres faced a surge in ticket-buying traffic Tuesday after tickets for “Dune: Part Three” went on sale, temporarily disrupting the company’s website and mobile app. AMC CEO Adam Aron said the ticketing system experienced “crushing volume” as moviegoers rushed to secure seats, particularly for IMAX and other premium screenings at high-demand locations.

Aron said the unusually heavy traffic briefly slowed or caused glitches in AMC’s online ticketing systems. He described demand for the film as “extraordinarily high,” with premium formats such as IMAX attracting especially strong interest.

Traffic on AMC’s website and mobile application reached roughly three times the level recorded during the ticket launch for “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” which has been the highest-grossing movie of 2026 so far. AMC has previously faced criticism over ticketing disruptions during sales for major releases including “The Odyssey” and “Avengers: Doomsday.”

Reports of problems with AMC’s services briefly surged on Downdetector after the “Dune: Part Three” ticket release, with more than 1,000 reports recorded. Most complaints involved the mobile application. Some users said the app would not open and displayed a “Failed to fetch” message, while others encountered rate-limit errors indicating that too many requests had been made within a specific period.

Complaints on Reddit’s AMC subreddit described similar problems, including users receiving rate-limit messages immediately after entering the application and reports that the app crashed when customers attempted to launch it. Conditions appeared to improve roughly an hour after ticket sales began.

The rush for tickets was not limited to AMC. Fandango’s digital waiting room reportedly stretched beyond an hour as moviegoers attempted to purchase tickets for the highly anticipated sequel.

Demand has also spilled into the resale market. Some IMAX 70mm tickets for “Dune: Part Three” have appeared on eBay for about $200 each. Similar resale activity followed the ticket launch for “The Odyssey,” when some sellers listed tickets for as much as $1,000.

“Dune: Part Three” is scheduled to arrive in theaters on the same weekend as “Avengers: Doomsday,” setting up a major box-office competition between two high-profile franchises. While “Avengers: Doomsday” will have plenty of theatrical screens, it will not receive domestic IMAX screens during the opening weeks because those screens will be allocated to “Dune: Part Three.” The third “Dune” film was partially shot for IMAX presentation.

The “Dune” franchise has grown commercially with each installment. The 2021 film “Dune” earned $410 million worldwide, while “Dune: Part Two” reached $714 million globally in 2024. The third film could surpass those totals, although its simultaneous release with “Avengers: Doomsday” could affect how the two movies perform at the box office.

Fans have informally dubbed the simultaneous release “Dunesday,” with some anticipating a potential double-feature experience. A similar release pairing worked well for “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie” in 2023. The so-called “Barbenheimer” phenomenon helped “Oppenheimer” generate $975 million worldwide, while “Barbie” reached $1.4 billion globally.