There have been a lot of discussions surrounding Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness‘ box office development. Yes, it did face a harsh drop in its second weekend but as The Numbers pointed out, many frontloaded projects have tended to face harsher drops and Forbes made a good point on people expecting either an Avengers-level crossover film or a cameo fiesta like Spider-Man: No Way Home. Throw in the strong horror elements that may not jell with some general audiences, you end up with a B+ CinemaScore and people hoping for more, as such slowing down the word-of-mouth. Throw in a rather dead weekend with little competition.
Still, the film opened as the 11th highest opening ever at the domestic box office. Even if it’s the second weekend was below The Batman‘s stronghold, the film is still not slowing down as it has now passed the $700M club. As of now, the film has garnered $297M domestically and $406M internationally. So, it managed to pull in the missing $12M to pass the benchmark it just barely missed over the weekend.
There’s something fascinating about the discussions surrounding box office numbers. Even while Multiverse of Madness will very likely not pass the billion mark, it’s by far still a success for Marvel Studios. It already passed the box office of its original release, which stood at a strong $676M and is very likely going to move around the $900M mark. So, it is a definite increase from one film to the next even if it’s been six years between sequels.
The MCU’s connected universe gives these films the benefit of sustaining franchises even with larger gaps due to ongoing appearances and staying relevant to viewers. We’ll see if Thor: Love and Thunder may soar with the expectations of the multiverse finally dropped from a new release.
Source: Twitter, The Numbers, Forbes
