Once upon a time, there was a group of superheroes trying to prevent an evil purple guy from destroying half the universe’s population. You know, simpler times, back when the complex discussion of the multiverse was yet to be explored (mostly). Then, in 2019, everything changed when the title to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was announced at Comic Con and everyone basically went mad.
Originally slated for a 2021 release date, but then pushed back to May 6, 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it feels like we had to wait a lifetime to see our favorite Sorcerer Supreme reprise his role in a stand-alone film again. Now, here we are, still reeling from the insanity that was Stephen Strange and Wanda Maximoff in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and we don’t know about you, but we can’t wait to see it again.
Picking up after the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home, the movie saw Stephen Strange begin his journey of madness by attending the wedding of Dr. Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams). However, down below in the middle of New York City, a catastrophe erupted as the young multiverse-traveling superhero America Chavez showed up out of nowhere, along with a demonic monster hunting her down. Strange lent America a helping hand and then turned to Wanda for assistance, thus kicking off the wildly entertaining events of the film. The film finally merged some of the lingering storylines floating around in the MCU, but left us with even more unanswered questions than we had going in.
How did Doctor Strange 2 perform at the box office?
Early ticket sales for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness told the tale of a Blockbuster annihilation that had the potential to beat out its most recent MCU predecessor at the time, Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Fandango reported that the film did beat out The Batman‘s early ticket sales, and now Forbes has reported that Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness earned itself a global box office total of $877.6 million, which is $200 million more than the first Doctor Strange movie. Additionally, Doctor Strange 2 was the fifth movie to be shut out of China’s theaters, and was neither shown in Russia nor Ukraine. Meaning, its numbers could have been even larger.
Leading up to its release, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness teased the potential of being bigger than Spider-Man: No Way Home, which brought in $1.89 billion. While that didn’t happen, it did outbeat Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. to become the third-biggest MCU film to date (excluding Iron Man and Spider-Man because, well, those films notoriously bring in box office-shattering numbers). So, at this point it only makes sense to make another sequel.
When will Doctor Strange 2 be available to stream on Disney Plus?
The pandemic did strange things to the movie viewing experience, with studios skipping theatrical releases entirely and moving films straight to streaming services. Even with things now returning to normal, the pandemic and the popularity of streaming services has caused waves in Hollywood. Where films once had at least a 90-day theatrical window between the release of a film and it’s move to DVD , that number has been decreased to 45 days. This first began when Disney decided to forego the 90-day window entirely with Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, choosing to release the film on Disney Plus after just 45 days. Many studios have since adopted that playbook.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was expected to reach Disney Plus as soon as June 20 and it appears the studio has cooperated with that timeline. So, whether you’ve been waiting to see the movie for the first time on Disney Plus or just want to watch the madness all over again, Marvel announced via their Twitter that you can officially do so as of June 22, 2022.
