Box Office: ‘Doctor Strange 2’ Second Weekend Set to Put Out ‘Firestarter’

Anna Tingley If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. After reigning over the box office, “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” will hit Disney+ this month.The Benedict Cumberbatch-led movie arrives on the streamer June 22, just a handful of weeks after its May 6 release.

LOS ANGELES -- Doctor Strange and his multiverse got to linger a little longer atop the weekend box office as Tom Cruise and “Top Gun” wait in the wings.Marvel's “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” was the top-earning film of the weekend for the third straight week, bringing in $31.6 million in 4,534 North American theaters, according to studio estimates released Sunday.“Downtown Abbey: A New Era” made a strong opening showing for Focus Features with $16 million from 3,820 theaters, but there was no real blockbuster competition for “Doctor Strange."That will change with the long awaited, and long delayed, release of “Top Gun: Maverick,” the sequel that arrives next week on Memorial Day weekend, 36 years after the original smash hit and cultural landmark.It flies in amid sky-high hype.Cruise had the film festival in Cannes, France, abuzz on Wednesday with a whirlwind appearance for the film's European premiere that included a fly over of French fighter jets and an honorary Palme d’Or award.But while the world waits, “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” crossed the $800 million mark in global grosses, surpassing “The Batman” to become the top-grossing film of the year.Released by the Walt Disney Co. and directed by Sam Raimi, “ Doctor Strange 2 ” benefitted from being the first Marvel movie to follow “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” in which Benedict Cumberbatch’s sorcerer played a pivotal role.It also builds upon the popular Disney+ series “Wandavision” and contains a number of cameos that fans didn’t want to be spoiled.Holdover family films “The Bad Guys” and “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” took the third and fourth spots.

Refresh for latest…: Disney/Marvel’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness crossed $800M globally this weekend, now with $803.2M after three frames. Of that $342.1M is from domestic and $461.1M from the international box office. The offshore drop was 53% with $40M from 49 markets.

FRIDAY MIDDAY UPDATE: Focus Features sequel Downton Abbey: A New Era is heading toward an $18M opening after a projected $8M Friday that includes $1M in Thursday night previews.

Refresh for latest…: Disney/Marvel’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness is approaching $700M globally after two weekends. The worldwide cume through Sunday is now an estimated $688.1M, including $291.9M domestic and $396.2M from the international box office. The latter number will shortly pass The Batman to become the biggest overseas release of 2022.

“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” stayed on top of the box office charts during its second weekend in theaters, earning an additional $61 million from North American theaters, according to studio estimates on Sunday.With $688 million in global grosses, it’s already one of the highest grossing films of the pandemic and the second biggest of 2022. But a 67% fall is also a steep drop — even for reliably frontloaded superhero films.

First the somewhat bad news: this domestic result represents a 67% drop from the film’s $187 million domestic opening. By comparison, 2015’s “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” which opened to $191 million and 2016’s “Captain America: Civil War,” which opened to $179 million, had holds of 59.5% and earned second weekend totals of over $70 million.

That would be a somewhat larger second weekend drop from its $187 million opening weekend than MCU films like “Captain America: Civil War” and “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” which had similar opening weekends and topped $70 million in their second frame. Still, Sam Raimi’s MCU film is close to joining “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and “The Batman” as only the third film of the COVID era to earn over $300 million at the global box office, and will also pass $600 million in global grosses this weekend.

Jordan Moreau “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” still reigns supreme. The Marvel sequel crossed $550 million at the global box office in nine days, Disney announced Friday.The Benedict Cumberbatch-led movie, directed by Sam Raimi, will put a spell over the box office once again this weekend, where it faces no major competition in theaters.

Disney/Marvel’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will easily reign in its second weekend without any truly fire-breathing competition from rival majors, expected to draw $74M-$80M, a 57% to 60% decline.

has already made $500 million at the box office and shows no signs of slowing down. And now that so many people have seen it, screenwriter Michael Waldron is opening up about the latest film installment’s many, many cameos, how inspired a murderous stretch of the film, what the ending means for longtime character Wanda Maximoff (played by Elizabeth Olsen) and why this wasn’t the place to formally introduce mutants into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. [: Spoilers for ] In the sequel, Wanda, now known as the Scarlet Witch, reveals herself to be the movie’s big bad after Dr.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness star Benedict Cumberbatch has revealed that he once turned down the opportunity to play a Marvel villain.Before taking on the role of the surgeon-turned-sorcerer, the actor was approached to play Malekith the Accursed in Thor: The Dark World, a part that ultimately went to Doctor Who star Christopher Eccleston.Recalling the offer in an interview with BBC Radio 1, Cumberbatch admitted that he was “flattered” to be “invited to the party” but that he was holding out for “something a bit more juicy.”“[The Doctor Strange role] happened as an idea muted after, funnily enough, another little dance I did for another character in the MCU, a very brief character,” he said.“I was bold enough to say: ‘I’m really flattered to be invited to the party, but I’d rather hold out for something a bit more juicy.’”Cumberbatch explained that his decision to turn down the villainous role was partly down to the fact that he’d just finished playing an antagonist in Star Trek: Into Darkness.The actor portrayed the iconic Star Trek villain Khan in the 2013 film. His casting as Doctor Strange was announced a year later.

Angelique Jackson It’d been six years since Rachel McAdams scrubbed into the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Dr. Christine Palmer, the will they-or-won’t they love interest of Benedict Cumberbatch’s title hero “Doctor Strange.” But while Cumberbatch went on to join the Avengers in their fight against Thanos in the Infinity Saga, McAdams has been MIA since 2016.In 2021, though, the Oscar-nominee reprised her role as Christine for the heart wrenching Doctor Strange-centric episode of “What If?” on Disney Plus, but that was a voiceover role. McAdams still seemed like a no-go for the live action sequel.

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment WriterSPOILER ALERT: This story discusses major plot points of Marvel Studios’ “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” currently in theaters.

Benedict Cumberbatch hosted tonight’s Saturday Night Live to promote his new movie, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. He mentioned the hugely popular Marvel franchise in his opening monologue, and the movie also was referenced in the very last skit, cast member Chloe Fineman’s “The Understudy”.

J. Kim Murphy The doctor is in.

“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” goes to some odd places in the course of its runtime, ping-ponging beyond the MCU to places beyond.But it never stops in a game show universe.Thankfully, we corrected that. We asked the film’s stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Rachel McAdams, Benedict Wong and Xochitl Gomez to play a Strange Quiz – a trivia game where every answer has the word “Strange” in it.

WARNING: Major spoilers below for “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.”Benedict Cumberbatch is back in his wizard cape and costume for “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.”The sequel to the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s 2016 superhero flick reunites Cumberbatch, 45, with stars Rachel McAdams, Benedict Wong, Michael Stuhlbarg and Chiwetel Ejiofor, with Elizabeth Olsen and Xochitl Gomez rounding out the main cast.However, there were many shocking cameos that made fans literally gasp in the movie theater.The film followed Dr. Stephen Strange (Cumberbatch) as he teams up with America Chavez (Gomez) to stop Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch (Olsen) throughout several universes.About almost halfway through the two-hour Sam Raimi-directed movie, a medley of characters appear in a series of surprising cameos.WARNING: Stop reading to avoid spoilers.There is one point in the story where Dr.