Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has the eighth highest-grossing opening night at the box office of all time. Over the last decades of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the superhero movies from Marvel Studios have continued to become some of the biggest in all of Hollywood at the box office. Avengers: Endgame broke box office records in 2019 — including becoming the biggest movie ever for a short time — and Spider-Man: No Way Home shattered expectations in a post-pandemic theatrical landscape. This fueled the belief that Doctor Strange 2 could also be a massive financial hit for the MCU during Phase 4.
Following Doctor Strange's appearance in Spider-Man: No Way Home, Benedict Cumberbatch returns to star as the sorcerer in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The film generated plenty of excitement throughout its marketing campaign by teasing Scarlet Witch's (Elizabeth Olsen) role after WandaVision and the multiverse cameos that it could contain, such as Patrick Stewart's Professor X. Sam Raimi's return to Marvel after directing the original Spider-Man trilogy and bringing horror vibes to the MCU also contributed to more interest in the sequel. For all of those reasons, box office projections for Doctor Strange 2 have had it surpassing The Batman to be the biggest movie of 2022.
While Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has been available in some international territories for a few days, the MCU movie had its first showings domestically last night, May 5th. According to THR, Doctor Strange 2's opening night box office earned $36 million. This is the eighth-highest opening night of all time domestically and the fourth-highest for an MCU movie. Doctor Strange 2's opening night box office supports tracking for the movie to open to more than $160M in its first weekend, while some projections even have it earning more than $200M.
The opening night box office for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness puts it right behind Avengers: Infinity War's $39M opening night, which propelled the movie to a then-record $257M opening weekend. The MCU sequel is also behind Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker ($40M), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II ($43.5), Star Wars: The Last Jedi ($45M), Spider-Man: No Way Home ($50M), Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($57M), and Avengers: Endgame ($60M). The lowest opening weekend among these films was The Rise of Skywalker's $169M, which is near the low-end of Doctor Strange 2's projections.
Word of mouth on Doctor Strange 2 should be quite strong, as the movie has earned a relatively positive reception from critics and general audiences according to Rotten Tomatoes. This should help the movie avoid falling below the lowest projections for its opening weekend and give it the second-biggest opening weekend for a Phase 4 MCU movie. That will be good news for the prospects of Doctor Strange 3 and any other projects that Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness helps set up.
Source: THR
