‘Doctor Strange 2’ Crosses $230M In First Week; ‘Firestarter’ Previews Low Spark At $375K – Friday AM Box Office

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.

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.

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.

J. Kim Murphy The sorcerer continues to reign supreme in North America’s multiplexes of madness.

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.

There’s no denying it. “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” is a bonafide hit with fans and at the box office – as if anyone had any doubt in the Marvel machine continuing to rake in money.

After crossing the $200M domestic mark on Monday, Disney/Marvel’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness on Tuesday zoomed past $500M global. It is also nearing $300M at the international box office, certain to reach that milestone today.

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.

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.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaThis sorcerer still reigns supreme.Disney and Marvel’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” earned a formidable $36 million in Thursday previews, setting the stage for what could be a massive $175 million-plus debut this weekend. This ranks as the eighth largest preview performance ever, behind “Avengers: Infinity War’s” $39 million in 2018.

It’s the first week of May, and you know what that means, right? The Marvel Studios machine has pumped out another feature and is ready to take over the world yet again. This time, we get “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” and boy, oh boy, The Playlist Podcast has some thoughts.

A very marvel-ous season! Nearly five months since the last Marvel Cinematic Universe flick hit the big screen, this summer will have two highly anticipated sequels coming out: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Thor: Love and Thunder — and that’s just the tipping point for 2022 movie releases.

“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” a giant movie that has the unenviable task of being a sequel to the original “Doctor Strange” standalone film (released way back in 2016), a follow-up to the enormously successful “Spider-Man: No Way Home” (which heavily featured Strange) and a second season of sorts to “WandaVision,” the inaugural Marvel Studios series for Disney+ that aired more than a year ago.In “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” directed by the one and only Sam Raimi, Strange (once again played by Benedict Cumberbatch) starts to unravel a mystery that could impact not only his world but all of the worlds, leading him to team up with psychically powered orphan Wanda Maximoff aka Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and MCU newcomer America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), who has the power to open star-shaped portals to other universes.Perhaps the biggest surprise is saved for the end, during the movie’s credits. But if you were befuddled as much as you were dazzled, we’ve got you covered.

“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” has arrived. In this adventure, which serves as both a sequel to 2016’s “Doctor Strange” and a direct follow-up to both the Disney+ original series “WandaVision” and last year’s blockbuster “Spider-Man: No Way Home” (where Doctor Strange co-starred with Spider-Man). This time around, the good Doctor (once again played by Benedict Cumberbatch) teams up with Wanda aka the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and newcomer America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) on a multiverse-hopping trek.

Clayton Davis The horror genre is one of the most undervalued art forms in the space of critical accolades. However, scramble in the superhero factor, like Marvel’s newest entry, “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” from Sam Raimi, and you have a product that will indeed generate discussion and divisive reactions.To get it out of the away nice and early, the anticipated sequel is not a contender to go into the history books like the two previous superhero features that managed to make the cut, “Black Panther” (2018) and “Joker” (2019).