Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness kicks off the summer movie season in style.
Starting in 2007, moviegoers could count on the first Friday in May bringing a new Marvel movie, whether it be an entry from the MCU, a Spider-Man movie, or an X-Man movie. That tradition has been suspended the last four years however, first by Disney's decision to push Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame to the final weekend of April, and then the pandemic scrambling the movie calendar (among many, many, many other things). However, now that things are beginning to return to normal (relatively speaking), Marvel returns to its traditional May opening weekend with the blockbuster arrival of Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness.
The unusually trippy MCU entry, which also served as a follow-up to last year's hugely popular miniseries WandaVision, opened with a huge $187.4 million. That's easily the best opening of the year, and in fact the best non-Spider-Man opening since The Lion King in the summer of 2019. It's enough to already pass Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for #2 for the year, and it should only be a matter of time before it passes The Batman to take the top spot. While May isn't quite as empty as January was for Spider-Man and March was for The Batman, there should be plenty of room to romp, as the next true blockbuster title, Top Gun: Maverick, isn't out until Memorial Day weekend. Expect this to be approaching $400 million by then.
Doctor Strange sucked up nearly 85% of all ticket sales over the weekend, leaving all the holdovers to battle for the scraps. Coming in at a distant #2 is The Bad Guys, the animated heist comedy that earned $9.6 million for a total of $57.8 million. This is looking likely to be sent to jail around $75 or $80 million. In third is the aforementioned Sonic the Hedgehog 2, which sped away with $6 million for a total of $169.7 million. This will likely finish around $185 million.
The disappointing Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore came in fourth with $4.3 million. It now stands at $86.3 million and will have a tough time coming up with the $13.7 million needed to crawl over the $100 million mark. The other multiverse-spanning movie, sleeper hit Everything Everywhere All At Once falls a bit back toward Earth, earning $3.5 million for a gross of $41.8 million. It should still make it to $50 million, but perhaps not much higher.
In sixth, The Northman plundered $2.9 million to increase its haul to $28.1 million. The Lost City continues to exhibit decent legs, earning $2.8 million for a total of $94.7 million.
Rounding out the Top 10 are three star vehicles with disappointing overall grosses. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is up to $16.5 million, Memory is at $5.7 million, and Father Stu is at $19.3 million.
Studios are still giving Doctor Strange a wide berth, so the only wide newcomer this weekend is Firestarter, an adaption of Stephen King's 1980 novel that had been previously filmed in 1984 with Drew Barrymore in the title role. This time, the lead is 12-year-old Ryan Kiera Armstrong, who along with her dad Zac Efron, is on the run from an evil government agency that wants her powers for themselves. Universal clearly doesn't think much of its box office prospects, as it is also coming out on Peacock this weekend. Still, with King's name and against a bunch of increasingly elderly holdovers, it should open in second, though well behind the second weekend of Multiverse. Will Doctor Strange retain enough of its opening weekend audience that it tops $100 million for the second weekend in a row? We'll find out next week.
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