Doctor Strange topples Trolls at UK box office

Doctor Strange has topped the box office in the UK and Ireland after taking £9.3m on its opening weekend.

The film, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Rachel McAdams, is based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name.

Last week’s number one, the animated children’s film Trolls, fell to second place after taking a further £3.3m.

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, The Girl On The Train and Bridget Jones’s Baby rounded off the top five.

Benedict Cumberbatch: From Hamlet to superhero

The only other new entry in this week’s top 10 was the Indian romantic drama Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, which translates as This Heart is Complicated.

The film, which stars Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma, took £617,000 on its opening weekend to land at number seven.

Source: ComScore Doctor Strange was first brought to life on screen in 1978 in a television film starring Peter Hooten.

Marvel Studios released an animated film based on the character in 2007, called Doctor Strange: The Sorcerer Supreme.

Its strong start at the UK box office makes it Marvel’s fifth most successful opening weekend to date, according to Screen Daily.