Doctor Strange 2 is already posting massive box office numbers
The Multiverse Of Madness scored $36 million on Thursday, the 8th biggest preview night in movie history
Aux News Doctor Strange
We love to see an underdog story, don’t we folks? Triumph over adversity. Victory in the face of overwhelming odds. A plucky little movie making its way in the world, climbing to the top of the Thursday night box office previews with nothing pushing it up that hill but a little spirit, a lot of heart, and the full combined marketing might of the most powerful entertainment conglomerate on Earth.
Which is to say that Benedict Cumberbatch sequel Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness is doing rather well for itself today, after having been in theaters for approximately 18 hours at this point. Variety reports that Sam Raimi’s film—which sees the former Sorcerer Supreme bouncing across the multiverse in an effort to battle a rising evil (i.e., Disney’s draconian review spoiler policies)—managed to bring in a massive $36 million on Thursday night, apparently the 8th highest preview night winnings of all time.
By the weird magic of movie box office predictions, that apparently means the film is on track to earn $175 million in its opening weekend, making it the second-biggest opening since the start of the pandemic, after Cumberbatch’s last outing as everyone’s favorite practitioner of close-up reality magic, Spider-Man: No Way Home.
What’s most interesting about these numbers is that this is, decidedly, not the reception the first Doctor Strange movie, directed by Scott Derrickson, got back in 2016. That film ended up clocking about $680 million worldwide, which, while not mystical chicken scratch, put it firmly in mid-tier Marvel performance territory, alongside movies like Captain America: The Winter Soldier ($714 million) and Thor: The Dark World ($644 million).
Of course, the last six years have seen the profile of Cumberbatch’s magical super hero rise considerably, considering his major parts in three of the top 10 highest grossing films of all time. Multiverse also has hype flowing into it from multiple directions, seeing as it’s functionally a sequel to both No Way Home, and the critically acclaimed WandaVision, and its own Strange predecessor. And then there’s also the whole “pandemic” thing; audiences are clearly, finally feeling comfortable risking the theater again, as long as it means they get to see a shot of that one bald guy that Disney has been teasing the hell out of in all those trailers.
We also can’t help but hoping, in our heart of hearts, that a small fraction of that future performance comes from Sam Raimi fans just excited to see the guy score a win with his return to film-making after nearly a decade away. Multiverse has some stiff competition if it wants to become the biggest performer of Raimi’s career—the first Spider-Man made $825 million back in 2002, the equivalent of $1.3 billion today—but it’s certainly likely to be a step up from Drag Me To Hell and Oz The Great And Powerful, his last two features.
33 Comments
So it has basically already made more than Everything Everywhere all at Once, which is a better movie about the multiverse and doesn’t require you to have seen 20 to 100 hours of related material beforehand to appreciate it fully.
you can watch and enjoy both
I did see both on consecutive days. Doctor Strange 2 did what it had to do to make the money but Everything Everywhere All at Once made it look like My Dinner With Andre in comparison, Doctor Strange 2 very sedately sitting there talking while EEAaO in contrast took the multiverse concept and gleefully ran with it like a delightful maniac
I mean my dinner with Andre is a classic
I’m not saying it isn’t but both it and Doctor Strange 2 were much less likely to be using a dog on a leash like a Go Go Yubari mace on a chain than Everything Everywhere All at Once.
You absolutely can. The trouble is that the success of one directly threatens the success of the other – EEAAO just stopped playing at my local theater in favor of the thirty Doctor Strange showings they have each day.
The trouble is that the success of one directly threatens the success of the otherSo an old movie was replaced by a new movie at your local theatre?My god, has such a thing even happened before?
In regard to the objective part of this comment:Yes it has.In regard to the subjective part of this comment:If you say so.
No one is making someone buy a ticket to one or the other…
Everything Everywhere all at Once was never going to put up MCU movie numbers. That being said, having not watched Doctor Strange MOM, I doubt it will be even close to as good as EEAAO was. Looking forward to watching it again when it comes out on streaming. I feel like it will get a lot of legs on home video and the indy movie circuit(midnight movies and such).
Completely agree. They aren’t the same thing. I was just stating an observation that I found interesting. It seems to have passed off a few people (not you, I just don’t like engaging with passed off people over stuff like this).
passed off… I just don’t like engaging with passed off people“you can watch and enjoy both”“No one is making someone buy a ticket to one or the other…”“If you say so.”Yes, the vitriol you have received by people who have disagreed with your opinion is quite shocking.You’re the real hero for having to endure this torrent of abuse.
I think getting annoyed about these things is just kind of a waste of time. On any given week, a blockbuster is beating a more interesting, smaller film. And creating a largely imaginary box office competition between Everything Everywhere All at Once and Doctor Strange was just begging to be disappointed.(Also, I didn’t have a problem with the tone of your initial comment, but I think it’s a little disingenuous to say you were “just stating an observation,” and expressing surprise that anyone might have reacted to it in a confrontational way.)
Everything Everywhere all at Once was never going to put up MCU movie numbers.Maybe not in this universe …
People need to stop doing this dumb ass comparison because Its two completely different projects. MORE than one project can deal with the multiverse as a concept. Putting two fantastic films against each other that do some very different things for their genres, and do them WELL, Is stupid as hell.
Sam Raimi is hands down the worst part of this turd of a movie
How do you mean? Have not seen it but I figure Sam’s style would have worked well for this sorta thing.
No idea what this person means. I saw it yesterday and I enjoyed it. It felt like a Sam Raimi film.
This is a very sloppy movie on almost every level, which is something I can absolutely forgive if he would’ve gotten the characters right(or maybeee even a good story) but he absolutely failed in my eyes. I’m glad others seem to like this better than I did, but this is down there with Thor 2 as the absolute bottom of the MCU for me.
Saw it tonight. Not rating it super high but I think it’s better then Iron Man 2 and The Eternals. Probably around Thor 2 level(which I honestly don’t rate as the lowest, see above). In my mind I sort MCU movies by tier and this one is a tier three. Watchable for the most part but not one I seek out to watch. If it’s on cable I may leave it on.
Watch it twice. I saw it in the theaters in 3d on mushrooms and it felt like a long chase scene that ignored all of Wanda’s character development in WandaVision. Then I watched a bootleg at home and it was actually kind of a perfect movie. It fits in great with the rest of the MCU while being a distinct Raimi flick with tons of Raimi movie callbacks. I’m a huge Raimi fan, so if you’re not, you’ll never like this movie.
I’m a medium Raimi fan, and can definitely appreciate some sloppy fun movie making. I am curious to give it another shot but there were just too many moments that were reminiscent of other, better super hero movies. The intro sequence with the invisible squid was like star-o from suicide squad, the illuminati stuff… I won’t say but it’s basically old hat at this point, the rocketing through a ton of different multiverses very quickly, and I’m sure I could go on. The whole thing with Christine was just out of nowhere and the theme of “are you happy” was about as half baked as you get. I usually don’t get this involved in Marvel but something about how carelessly this was made really pissed me off…
I think maybe it’s just tonally discordant with what people might expect from an MCU property? I’m ambivalent about Raimi (Liked Spider-Man, don’t generally like horror, especially his style) but I thought he did a good job infusing horror into this movie, even if it’s not actually scary. Still, some of those horror bits feel out of place for this type of film, and I was put off by the suddenness of some of the violence. It didn’t really affect my enjoyment of the movie though. I guess if you don’t like the movie, than the Raimi stuff probably comes across even worse as a result.
For some reason Sam reverted back to his early Evil Dead/Darkman style of directing for Doctor Strange 2, and it sticks out like a sore thumb.
I’ve been doing a Raimi rewatch and saw this last night and while he does use his flourishes sometimes, I personally thought the movie felt more like a very by then numbers directed MCU movie with a few Raimi touches. I wanted it to feel more like his early horror work then it did.
I realize that this is film nerd sacriledge, but sloppiness is part of Sam Raimi’s style. The exception are the Spider-man movies, where he had enormous studio oversight.The Evil Dead movies are fun because they were made on a shoestring budget (i.e. the stakes are so low) and because the story is straightforward (i.e. demonic energy enjoys torturing Ash).However, when you’re sloppy with high-stakes storylines and characters in whom others are deeply invested, then it creates a deeply dissappointing outcome.The plot was wildly incoherent and characterization was infuriatingly inconsistent. This is most evident in the surprise cameos, which were so poorly executed as to completely deflate fan-service for someone who’s been collecting comics for three decades. You have to try pretty hard to ruin the experience of seeing [redacted] onscreen for the first time.There were some amazing, creative visuals, for which Raimi should also get much of the credit. I won’t ever sit through the full movie again, but I will probably revisit some of the individual scenes that are enjoyable as stand-alones.
I was expecting to be disappointed especially with all the rumored cameos and stuff that just sounded obnoxious, but what rumors did end up being true I thought they handled in a very cool way
[uh, spoilers for a cameo that doesn’t happen]I was hoping we’d get Ioan Gruffudd 🙁 Maybe someday! I’m always a big fan of “rehabilitating” once-hated movies (like the TASM 2 stuff in Far From Home).
I would legit read a 10,000-word article or listen to a 10-hour narrative podcast as to what the fuck happened to that guy’s career.
Imagine going back to the early 2000’s and telling people that not only would a Dr. Strange movie outperform a Dumbledore movie, it would be a one sided bloodbath.
You know, something irked me about these superheroes movies. The inconsistency of flight.You know, when you have the ability of flying/floating that can take the destination A to B faster, yet when somehow when the character find him/herself in an enclosed space, or hallway. What they opted to? Walking. Or running.As demonstrated a lot in this movie. Both Strange and Wanda can fly/float at ease. Yet every time they are inside the building/hallway/tunnel, they choose walking, and running. Dude, you can fly, even teleport. Just do it!
Maybe next time, MCU haters.Oh, Thor 4 is next?Well, maybe the time after that…
PSA: Please stop doing this weird “contest” between Dr. Strange 2 and that other movie I have never heard of. I believe you it’s good, but this is a complete non-sequitur. They have nothing to do with each other, they don’t exist in some zero-sum vacuum.