Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Conjures $36 Million on Thursday
No one seriously believed that Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness wouldn’t have a big opening weekend. After all, it’s the first real Marvel movie of the year, and the first follow-up to last year’s smash, Spider-Man: No Way Home. Via Deadline, the early numbers are in, and Multiverse of Madness earned $36 million from Thursday preview screenings. That’s not as big as No Way Home‘s $50 million Thursday preview total, but you won’t hear Marvel complaining. Madness Conjures.
Deadline notes that Multiverse of Madness‘ $36 million take is the eighth-largest Thursday preview of all-time. However, that doesn’t account for the fact that the film had preview screenings beginning at 3pm. So it’s not exactly a fair comparison. It also surpassed The Batman‘s $21 million Thursday to claim the highest preview screening of 2022. Multiverse of Madness‘ preview numbers will be folded into Friday’s box office for the official opening day total on Saturday morning.
For the weekend, Multiverse of Madness is projected to land somewhere between $160 million and $175 million. Some observers have suggested it could even push closer to $200 million. Regardless of where it lands, it will easily pass Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings‘ $75.3 million opening, which was behind only No Way Home as Marvel’s best opening during the pandemic.
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The original MCU Doctor Strange film was released in 2016 with a $85.1 million opening weekend on its way towards a $232.6 million domestic box office run. Of course, the sequel has a few advantages over the first installment. Benedict Cumberbatch’s Stephen Strange has been kept at the forefront of the MCU in the six years between the first and second Doctor Strange movies. This particular sequel also touches upon the past, present, and future of the MCU. To say more would involve sharing actual spoilers, and we won’t do that here.
How high do you think Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will reach in its opening weekend? Share your predictions in the comment section below!
Recommended Reading: Doctor Strange Vol. 1: The Way of the Weird
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