Yesterday brought news that Marvel Studios' latest MCU blockbuster, Doctor Strange, was set to take the crown of #1 movie at the domestic box office for the second weekend in a row. Now, the international market numbers for the film's second weekend are in, and they've only reinforced the positivity of the film's overall financial outlook. It would seem that the future Sorcerer Supreme has succeeded in casting quite the spell on audiences worldwide.
As of yesterday's report, Doctor Strange had earned nearly $125 million domestically, and nearly $240 million outside the U.S., for a worldwide total of about $365 million. That put it 13th overall on the worldwide MCU box office chart, topping The Incredible Hulk's $263 million global haul. Strange was projected to bring in $45 million on its way to the top spot this weekend, and while it came up a tad short of that, the supernatural superhero film once again handily crushed the competition among moviegoers worldwide.
Doctor Strange's second-weekend earnings of $43 million increase its overall domestic total to a fairly robust $153 million, nearly recouping the film's production budget of $165 million all by itself. When second-weekend international grosses are taken into account, Strange brought in near an additional $100 million, raising the film's worldwide total to $492.6 million. In other words, Marvel's reign of box office dominance continues mostly unabated.
As for where the film now stands on the MCU box office pecking order, Strange seems poised to top the domestic total of Captain America: The First Avenger by the end of next weekend, climbing up to the 12th all-time spot on the domestic MCU chart. The two films' totals are separated by only $23 million at this point, and with Strange holding up as well as it has so far, it's not hard to imagine it pulling in more than that in weekend three. Strange is also likely to pass Ant-Man and Thor, which sit at $180 and $181 million respectively. However, its ability to overtake Thor: The Dark World's $206 million domestic total remains uncertain.
Worldwide, Doctor Strange has already climbed past First Avenger and Thor, and will almost certainly pass Ant-Man's $519 million global total sometime within the next week. Passing Iron Man's global number of $585 million is definitely possible as well. From there, the next benchmarks to shoot for would be Iron Man 2's $624 million and The Dark World's $644 million, though reaching the latter may well prove to be a bridge too far, even for someone with magic on his side.
Sources: ComicBook, CBM
