It’s blockbuster movie season again, and that means some pretty big box office opens. After Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Universal’s The Bad Guys managed to hold back Nicholas Cage and vikings for a handful of weeks, here comes Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness doing what all Marvel movies do and making a boatload of cash in its first weekend.
Per Deadline, the Benedict Cumberbatch film also starring Bendedict Wong, Elizabeth Olsen and Xochitl Gomez had a $US450 ($625) million global debut. While it opened stateside to $US185 ($257) million, the other $US265M came from 49 other international markets, with Korea being the highest earner at $US30M. All those cameo teases and repeated glimpses of Stephen Strange using magic to slice a bus in half have paid off, as Multiverse now has the second biggest global start for a Hollywood film in this pandemic era behind its immediate MCU predecessor Spider-Man: No Way Home. In addition to having the 11th biggest opening of all time, it’s also now the fourth biggest global start for an MCU film.
Whether or not it’ll be as big as No Way Home in terms of box office remains to be seen, as that movie had people come back for repeated viewings to get in as much of the Spider-action as they could. With solid reviews and plenty to discuss about the film, it’ll definitely have some legs for the rest of the month. It won’t be long before it breezes past the $US677 ($940) million opening the original Doctor Strange film had back in 2016.
In terms of big blockbusters, Strange has the first half of May to itself. But closer to Memorial Day, it’ll face some decent competition in the form of Alex Garland’s new folk horror flick Men (May 20), The Bob’s Burgers Movie (May 27), and Top Gun: Maverick (May 27), the latter of which has been receiving pretty good word of mouth from those who’ve been able to see it early. Maverick’s faced its share of delays due to the pandemic, but Tom Cruise is still a pretty big box office draw, and if you saw Strange this weekend, you likely got a preview of the sequel showcasing some pretty sweet dogfighting action. Stephen Strange has survived a lot, but even he can’t stop Tom Cruise, the physical manifestation of destiny.
Want more Gizmodo news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel and Star Wars releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about House of the Dragon and Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
Editor’s Note: Release dates within this article are based in the U.S., but will be updated with local Australian dates as soon as we know more.