Somewhere there’s a universe where Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness was a flop, but not here. The latest Marvel flick has now taken in a total of half a billion dollars at box offices around the world.
Doctor Strange 2 is heading into its second weekend in theaters, having taken in $185 million in the US in its opening weekend. According to Box Office Mojo, the film has scored a global box office total of $507.8 million so far.
Since the pandemic began, Multiverse of Madness is behind only Spider-Man: No Way Home when it comes to a movie’s opening weekend and international box office total. It helps that you can only see the film in theaters and not on Disney Plus, unlike other films released in the depths of the pandemic like Black Widow. And despite Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and indie flick Everything Everywhere All At Once doing relatively well, Doctor Strange 2 is also relatively untroubled by competition until blockbuster season kicks off in earnest with Top Gun: Maverick on May 27, Jurassic World Dominion in June and Thor: Love and Thunder in July.
Benedict Cumberbatch and Elizabeth Olsen headline the film, in which Evil Dead director Sam Raimi brings a chilling new flourish to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
“The early stretches of the film could be drawn from a 1960s comic as a monster threatens a woman pushing a pram on a colorful New York street,” I noted in CNET’s Multiverse of Madness review, “But as the film progresses, it ramps up the horror. The villain’s monstrous power is signaled by jump scares and sinister horror movie flourishes, building to the most macabre final battle you’re likely to see in a family-friendly blockbuster.”
