It’s Doctor Strange in the multiverse of millions at the weekend box office
Sam Raimi's Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness obliterated the rest of the box office
Aux News Doctor Strange
As everyone could’ve predicted (we got this one right, but we’re not exactly going to pat ourselves on the back for it), The Bad Guys has lost its somewhat surprising spot at the top of the box office after three weeks thanks to the debut of Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness, which opened to $185 million this weekend. Not only is that the highest debut of the year, it’s more than the overall gross of any other weekend this year—meaning it made more money this weekend than every other movie combined had made on any other weekend. It’s a lot of money, you see. (Not quite Spider-Man: No Way Home money, as Benedict Cumberbatch predicted, but still impressive.)
Everything after Doctor Strange is nearly identical to the last few weeks, so let’s talk about Doctor Strange a tiny bit more: It opened in 4,500 theaters, which is huge, but before you accuse Marvel Studios and Disney of bullying theater chains and bruce-forcing their way to that $185 million by putting the movie on every screen, its per-screen average ($40,000) is significantly higher than anything else on the charts. That means it’s playing on a ton of screens and those screens are all making a ton of money each. Surprise, surprise! Marvel movies are popular!
But now let’s talk about those other movies, some of which we’ve been talking about for seven weeks now. The Bad Guys is sitting just shy of $60 million total, Sonic The Hedgehog 2 has pulled ahead of the total domestic gross of the first movie (which had the disadvantage of opening against COVID), Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore has almost made in five weeks as Doctor Strange made in one, Everything Everywhere All At Once has slipped a bit again (people only have so much time for multiverse movies), The Northman is hanging on, The Lost City staying in seventh place for a second consecutive week, The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent falling to just $1.5 million, something called Memory popping up even though we don’t remember what that one’s about, and, finally, Father Stu is… still there. Doctor Strange was playing in more than four thousand theaters, guys. You don’t need to see the movie with Mel Gibson!
Here’s that top 10 list again in a format that is less informative and less fun to read but is apparently good for our Google search results. You can also see this same list at Box Office Mojo.
- Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness
- The Bad Guys
- Sonic The Hedgehog 2
- Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore
- Everything Everywhere All At Once
- The Northman
- The Lost City
- The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent
- Memory
- Father Stu
39 Comments
I agree, go watch anything other than the film with human refuse Mel Gibson in it. Or human refuse Marky Mark, for that matter.
Right? I wonder how in the hell that shit managed to get in the top ten, even if in the last place!
From people like the old couple who walked by raving about it while I was in line for The Northman.
How was the Northman? I am not sure I am going to catch it in theaters but I am thinking it will be a fun late summer home watch
I liked it. My longer review is here:https://thepopculturists.blogspot.com/2022/04/this-weekend-in-pop-culture-april-15-17.html#comment-5829817956
Can’t wait for the “too cool for school” squad to start telling us how this is the end of all cinema.
What I love is that critics of the MCU will parrot the Scorsese elitism/criticism that these aren’t “real” movies and just amusement park rides, but in the next breath claim the movies are too complicated with too much backstory for people to jump into. Which is it? Are they not real narratives, and just spectacle? Or are they too dense in narrative where people can’t understand the spectacle?
…do you think that when people complain that these aren’t real movies, they’re saying they’re not ‘dense’ enough?Complicated backstories are not the same as good cinema.Complicated backstories are not the same as real narratives.Real narratives are not, even, necessary for good cinema. You’ve completely misunderstood the criticism.
Wankers, the lot.
Translation: “I’d like to be in a Marvel movie too, please.” – Jamie Lee Curtis
Ah, so *this* is where you draw the line.
Meh, I love me some comic movies but I hate the Marvel drones who think everything they do is great. Those people are almost as bad as the people who think blockbusters have destoryed cinema. Tell them Jaws said to fuck off.
Yeah, I think its a balance. Personally I grew up on Marvel comics and the idea that we have an entire giant franchise about them make me smile but I am not blind to their faults and issue. I do think they are making to0 many of them a year, to the determent of their own franchise and that he majority of them are just OK movies. Doctor Strange 2, for example, was fine but not one I see myself rewatch that often, unless it shows up on cable or some such. Post Endgame I have not really felt the spark in the franchise that was happening leading up to that. As I said to my wife this weekend. If you told 13 year old me that the biggest movie franchise in 2022 was Marvel based, spanned multiple characters and the first official reference to the X-Men would be a 5 minute cameo in the second Doctor Strange movie. My mind would have been blownThe other side though, that honestly believes that comic book movies are killing other genre, is just silly. Comic book movies are not the cause but a symptom of the issues with the industry. Which is and always has been first and foremost about making money. The only thing outside of comic books movies that are making the money that keeps theaters open is horror, mostly out of Blumhouse. Outside of a few exceptions and times of year, comedies, drama and romance movies just don’t bring the people in. Mostly because those movies general play just as well on a home screen and people long ago realized that. My issue is this idea that all of cinema is comic book movies, which just isn’t the case. The big studios actually make an effort to try to keep the comic book movies from competing with each other. So yeah there is usually one in the theater all year long but just look at the top ten from this week. You got one comic movie and a few franchise movies up there. Then you got a kids movie. But then you have several high concept indy movies(one being the best movie I have seen all year so far). You got a comedy and an adult action drama as well. And you got a shitty religious propaganda film made by a pair of assholes. As much as some people hate to admit it but Doctor Strange pulling in all that money and people is what allows the same theater to dedicate a screen to running “Everything, Everywhere, all at once”. If a Marvel movie or some other big block buster franchise movie was not coming out regularly, theaters would close.
Yeah, I grew up reading Marvel comics and watching DC Cartoons (and Spidey) so I love the fact that I get comic movies a few times a year. But I can admit when they suck, while some can’t.But to say it’s killing of Cinema is hilarious, you can still make your art film that will get an Oscar nod. Those films were never gonna be a blockbuster. Going back to the 70’s the Blockbusters were Exorcist, Jaws and Star Wars. I can’t remember how much Godfather 1 and 2 made but all the movies I mentioned had lines around the block and also were great.
In the 1970s, with a five-movie best picture field, the #1 movie got nominated for best picture 7 times (including all the blockbusters you mentioned), and 9 of 10 pictures that won best picture also finished in the top 10 in box office. Three of the winners were also the top picture at the box office. In the past 22 years, that’s happened once (Return of the King in 2003). Looking at the box office, the only other times in that period when it seemed like there was serious consideration for the #1 movie winning Best Picture was 2009 with Avatar, and 2014 with American Sniper.So sure, the 70s had their share of popular genre movies, sometimes trashy, but it also seems true that quality dramas were a lot more commercially viable, and that people were a lot more comfortable considering genre films quality cinema.
Only three of the top ten are sequels. That should appease those people maybe.
As everyone could’ve predicted (we got this one right, but we’re not exactly going to pat ourselves on the back for it), … they said, patting themselves on the back for it.
I can only assume that there’s a heavy incentive to include as many links as possible in an article, because bragging about how you predicted that the latest Marvel movie would win its opening weekend (while kinda sorta ironically making fun of the fact that you’re bragging about it) is pretty sad indeed.
i would be more impressed if there was actually anything else good that came out since no way home. its been a bit of a dry spell tbh. that probably helped this movie’s performance a TON.
Everything Everywhere was great!
Maybe, but it’s also being reported that the Moon Knight premiere was the most watched premiere episode of a TV show on streaming.It might just be that people really like their Marvel.
It opened this weekend in my local one screen one show a day theater. That’s saying something, as they almost never get new movies on week of release.
“before you accuse Marvel Studios and Disney of bullying theater chains and bruce-forcing their way to that $185 million”I know it’s just a typo, but I want to believe that this is a Batman reference
Hulk smash theater chains.
Wrong Bruce.If you know Sam Raimi, you’d know it’s Bruce Campbell
I’m going to just read this as a Bruce Campbell reference
YESS!
No, it’s an actual force of Bruces.
The per screen average was 16 times as high as the next highest wide release film, and when you get down to movies playing on 1-4 screens it was still over 4 times as high.
They would never do it because it’s not as impressive as saying how much money a movie made but they should instead mention how many tickets were sold. These movies keep breaking records because ticket prices keep going up.
You might want to check out the-numbers. It’s a website that breaks down a lot of box office numbers including giving average ticket price. Interesting, for the past five years, average ticket hasn’t been massively different. They also give you the per screen average. If you really care to figure out tickets sold, it’ll give you average ticket price and take per theater which can help you get an idea of what it might have looked like. Not perfect, but more detailed.
Sure. THAT’S the reason…
suPERherO faTiGue! Aaaaannnny day now….
I guess by Bruce-force you mean getting Bruce McCulloch to browbeat them? “Well why won’t you do it? Are you some sort of jerk? Some sort of prick? You… human loser!?”
Nearly every movie critic: “Disney and Marvel need to stop making movies with so much backstory and interlocking narratives.”The movie-going public: “No, they don’t.”
But I thought movie theaters were dEaD.