Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Weekend Box Office Revised Higher

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness scored a domestic opening weekend box office of $187 million, adjusted up slightly from the projected $185 million announced yesterday. The film marks the biggest opening weekend of director Sam Raimi's career, beating out Spider-Man 3, which scored $151 million (which at the time was incredible, but has since been dwarfed by a generation of billion-dollar blockbusters). It also more than doubled the $85 million opening weekend numbers for Doctor Strange, released in 2017. In the time since that movie, the character has been featured in Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, and Spider-Man: No Way Home, three of the highest-grossing movies in cinema history.

Given Strange's ties to those three films, as well as the acclaimed WandaVision and the broader Marvel Cinematic Universe, it is hardly surprising that the movie improved on the box office take of its predecessor. Still, for a character like Doctor Strange to do Batman v Superman numbers is a good indicator of just how much box office muscle the MCU can muster.

The $187 million is more than Disney reported, but actually a little less than some experts expected yesterday, when analysts figured the sequel could bring in as much as $195 million with a huge Sunday haul. The film took in $39 million yesterday, about a 32% drop from its Saturday numbers. 

Given the movie's lackluster CinemaScore (only by Marvel standards), it will be interesting to see how strong its numbers are in it second week. Will the hype, cameos, and MCU power be enough to keep it from sinking, even if fans aren't going back over and over again? Before No Way Home, the last three MCU releases had sunk by between 52% and 67% between the first and second week at the box office, although that 67% is Black Widow, which had a day-and-date release on Disney+. Spider-Man: No Way Home also had a huge drop week to week, but that was a combination of an absolutely monster opening weekend, and the fact that its second weekend was the Christmas holiday, so it's a bit of an anomaly as well.

You can see the official synopsis for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness below.

Now that Iron Man and Captain America have left after a fierce battle in Avengers: Endgame, former genius surgeon and the strongest magician of them all, Doctor Strange, is expected to play an active role as a central figure in the Avengers. However, using his magic to manipulate time and space at will with a forbidden spell that is considered the most dangerous has opened the door to a mysterious madness called "the Multiverse."

To restore a world where everything is changing, Strange seeks help from his ally Wong, the Sorcerer Supreme, and the Avengers' most powerful Scarlet Witch, Wanda. But a terrible threat looms over humanity and the entire universe that no longer can be done by their power alone. Even more surprising, the greatest threat in the universe looks exactly like Doctor Strange.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is in theaters now.