Marvel Dominates Box Office With "One of the Top Launches of All Time"

The highly-anticipated Doctor Strange In the Multiverse of Madness finally officially hit movie theaters on Friday, May 6, 2022.

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Unsurprisingly, the film — starring Benedict Cumberbatch (Doctor Stephen Strange) and Elizabeth Olsen (Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch) — is already another blockbuster sensation for Kevin Feige’s Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The Hollywood Reporter shared details about Doctor Strange 2’s theatrical debut, calling it “one of the top launches of all time” and noting that it “grossed $185 million in its debut to land one of the biggest openings of all time domestically — and the second best of the pandemic era — for a global start of $450 million.”

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THR went on to share:

Director Sam Raimi’s movie landed the 11th biggest domestic launch in history and the seventh biggest opening for any Marvel Cinematic title behind Avengers: Age of Ultron ($191.3 million), Black Panther ($202 million), The Avengers ($207.3 million), Avengers: Infinity War ($257.7 million), Spider-Man: No Way Home ($260.1 million) and Avengers: Endgame ($357.1 million), not adjusted for inflation. The latter three top the overall list of biggest openings.

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Variety noted that Doctor Strange In the Multiverse of Madness also had stunning Thursday night preview numbers, raking in $36 million. This places it behind Tom Holland and Zendaya’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, but ahead of all other pandemic-era MCU flicks.

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Below, you can find Thursday night preview numbers from all of Marvel Studios’ and Sony Pictures’ releases since The New Mutants:

• Black Widow (2021): $13.2 million
• Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021): $8.8 million
• Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021): $11.6 million
• Eternals (2021): $9.5 million
• Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021): $50 million
• Morbius (2022): $5.7 million

More on Doctor Strange In the Multiverse of Madness

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The official description of the Doctor Strange sequel reads:

Marvel Studios’ “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”—a thrilling ride through the Multiverse with Doctor Strange, his trusted friend Wong and Wanda Maximoff, aka Scarlet Witch. “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” opens in U.S. theaters on May 6, 2022.

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Sam Raimi’s thriller stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Benedict Wong, Rachel McAdams, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and introduces Xochitl Gomez as Multiverse traveler, America Chavez.

Have you seen Doctor Strange 2 yet?