We’ve all been keeping a close eye on where exactly Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness would end up in its second weekend. After quite the drop on its second Friday at 83%, the film still managed on its way to pull in $61M at the domestic box office. This makes it a 67% drop, which is higher than Eternals‘ 61% drop. Still, the film has opened with the 11th highest opening of all time and is still pulling in quite the numbers. It’s also the same drop that Spider-Man: No Way Home faced in its second weekend, which was Christmas at the time.
Doctor Strange‘s sequel now stands at $291.9M in its second weekend and has already surpassed the first film’s total domestic run as a result. It’s also pulled in more than other sequels like Captain America: Civil War and is likely to pass Iron Man 2 soon. Still, the drop could be an indicator moving forward if this remains a trend, as it’s a similar drop to Man of Steel (67.9%) and Fantastic Four (68.2%). With two more weeks to go before Top Gun: Maverick, if it doesn’t face too many harsh drops in the next two weeks it could get close to $400M or only slightly edge out The Batman.
For those wondering, the film has been pulling quite the numbers internationally, which also pushes it further into potentially ending its run at around $955M. As such, it’ll make at least 30% more than its predecessor and is still at a strong $688M worldwide right now. Still keep in mind that this is excluding Russia and Ukraine due to the current crisis, as well as without a Chinese or Saudi Arabian release.
Forbes’ Sam Mendelsohn points out that it may be developing towards “for fans only” properties like Harry Potter and Twilight, but it probably is likely that expectations going in for a film with the title “multiverse” on an Avengers-level crossover event and the horror elements may have turned some people off. The ceiling is also quite high which could be self-sufficient but a clearer picture will be established with future entries that don’t face these expectations. Spider-Man: No Way Home might be one of the reasons people went in with these expectations.
