`Doctor Strange' is still a big draw
“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” stayed on top of the box office charts during its second weekend in theaters, earning an additional $61 million from North American theaters, according to studio estimates Sunday.
With $688 million in global grosses, it's already one of the highest grossing films of the pandemic and the second biggest of 2022. But a 67% fall is also a steep drop — even for reliably frontloaded superhero films. Still, “SpiderMan: No Way Home” slid 68% in weekend two.
Released by the Walt Disney Co., “Doctor Strange 2” benefitted from being the first Marvel movie to follow “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” in which Benedict Cumberbatch's sorcerer played a pivotal role.
The movie has already exceeded the global earnings of the first “Doctor Strange” movie, as well as 11 other Marvel Cinematic Universe titles — and it's not even playing in China.
“Audiences crave these big blockbusters on the big screen,” said Paul Dergarabedian,
the senior media analyst for Comscore. “This marketplace has given `Doctor Strange' a pretty long runway to be successful until `Top Gun.' ”
There was little in the way of new competition. The only major new movie was Universal Pictures and Blumhouse's adaptation of Stephen King's “Firestarter,” which was released in both theaters and on the company's streaming service, Peacock+.
Starring Zac Efron and Ryan Kiera Armstrong, “Firestarter” earned just $3.8 million from 3,412 North American theaters.
Critics have been less than impressed with this iteration of King's story about a preteen with pyrokinetic powers. Audiences weren't on board either, giving it a C- CinemaScore.
“Firestarter” debuted in fourth place, behind holdover family films “The Bad Guys” and “Sonic the Hedgehog 2,” which took the second and third spots.
The faith-based comedy “Family Camp” also opened this weekend from Roadside Attractions. Playing on 854 screens, the PG-rated pic earned $1.4 million.