Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness saw a steep second-weekend drop at the box office after an impressive opening weekend. Released on May 6, the film kickstarted the summer movie season for 2022. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness opened to an impressive $187 million in its opening weekend, making $100M more than its predecessor did in its opening weekend. It also topped The Batman to become the biggest opening weekend of 2022.
The film is the second biggest opening weekend since the pandemic began, behind only Spider-Man: No Way Home. The massive increase in box office returns for the two latest MCU movies after the respectable but lower-end returns for Black Widow, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and Eternals during the pandemic seem to indicate audiences are coming back to the theater. However, the reaction to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has certainly been mixed, as it earned the second-lowest CinemaScore of any MCU film and that word of mouth was certainly going to impact the film in its following weeks.
According to Deadline, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness saw a 67% drop in its second weekend, although some other studios suspect more of a 68% drop. The film did still manage to hold the top spot with an estimated $61 million dollars and has brought its domestic total to $291 million. This does, however, put Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness among the second-biggest weekend drops in the MCU alongside Spider-Man: No Way Home and Black Widow.
Comparing the 67% drop to the similar 67.5% drop for Spider-Man: No Way Home and the 67.8% drop for Black Widow is not an entirely one-to-one comparison as there are various factors that go into it. Spider-Man: No Way Home's drop was due to its Friday landing on Christmas Eve, and was making large amounts of money daily during the holiday season. Black Widow was harmed by the studio's decision to release it on Disney+, with the studio estimating the movie lost $600 million due to piracy. For comparison, both Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Eternals, both of which Doctor Strange in the Multiverse has already outgrossed entirely, declined 52% and 61% respectively in their second weekends.
Something to note is that Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has already become the 17th highest-grossing film in the MCU domestically, surpassing the total of the first Doctor Strange film in just ten days. It will be interesting to see if the film can hold the top spot for the third weekend in a row, or if Downton Abbey: A New Era can sneak into the top spot before the double hitter of Top Gun: Maverick and The Bob's Burgers Movie for Memorial Day weekend. Early predictions for Jurassic World: Dominion could also best Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness opening weekend, so it appears the sorcerer supreme may not be king of the summer for too long.
Source: Deadline
