Doctor Strange 2 debuts to heroic B6.3bn in N. America
Doctor Strange and his questionably effective book of spells has summoned a blockbuster US$185 million (6.3 billion baht) at North American movie theatres over the weekend, reaffirming the box office dominance of Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe after a shakier, pandemic-battered year for the franchise.
The timeline-bending Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness represents a return to form for Disney’s MCU after Covid-era releases
Black Widow ($80 million debut, plus $60 million on Disney Plus), Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings ($75 million debut), and Eternals ($71 million debut). Due to the pandemic and other extenuating circumstances, those instalments failed to live up to their franchise predecessors in terms of ticket sales.
Those box office returns mark the 11th biggest opening weekend in history.
Given the anomaly of reaching those box office heights, Doctor Strange 2
easily delivered the biggest opening weekend of 2022, as well as the second-biggest debut in Covid-19 times. Prior to this weekend, The Batman
stood as the year’s biggest opening weekend with $134 million.
Spider-Man: No Way Home still ranks as the pandemic’s biggest opening weekend (and the second-biggest ever) with $260 million. Overseas, the film earned $265 million from 49 territories, taking the global total to $450 million. Since Doctor Strange 2 is not likely to play in China, Russia or Ukraine, the film will rely on repeat viewings from audiences around the globe to push ticket sales past the coveted $1 billion mark.
Only Spider-Man: No Way Home has been able to cross that threshold since Covid took hold.
After two weeks at the No.1 spot, Universal’s animated heist comedy The Bad Guys dropped to second place with $9.7 million from 3,839 venues. Those returns bring the movie’s domestic tally to $57 million.
Paramount’s family-friendly Sonic The Hedgehog 2 took third place with $6.2 million from 3,358 North American theatres. After five weeks on the big screen, the follow-up has grossed $169.9 million at the US box office. It’s one of the rare pandemic-era sequels to earn more than its predecessor in theatres. Sonic’s first silver screen adventure took in $148 million in North America before Covid-19 forced multiplexes to close in March of 2020.
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore dropped to the No.4 spot with $3.8 million from 3,051 screens. The latest chapter in the Harry Potter prequel series ranks as the lowest-grossing of the larger Wizarding World film franchise. The Secrets Of Dumbledore has generated $86 million to date and may struggle to cross $100 million domestically, a benchmark that prior Harry Potter-adjacent movies passed in a matter of days.
A24’s Everything Everywhere All At Once beat the Focus Features film The Northman for fifth place, as the former brought in $3.3 million from 1,542 theatres and the latter brought in $2.7 million from 2,413 theatres. This weekend’s turnout continues a strong box office run for Everything Everywhere All At Once, a genre-defying movie starring Michelle Yeoh, despite playing in far fewer theatres than The Northman. Since opening in theatres seven weeks ago, Everything Everywhere has grossed an impressive $41 million in North America. The Northman has earned $28 million to date.