Such is the weight of pressure and expectation that accompanies every new MCU blockbuster, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has actually been coming in for some criticism after failing to explode past the billion-dollar mark at the box office.
Of course, we should point out that Spider-Man: No Way Home is the only movie to hit ten figures since the end of 2019, and nobody was expecting Benedict Cumberbatch’s second solo outing to come close to matching a web-slinging epic that wound up as the sixth highest-grossing title in the history of cinema, an incredible return for a pandemic-era release.
However, Sam Raimi’s mind-melting trip through alternate realities has nonetheless set a couple of notably impressive milestones after its fifth weekend in theaters. Multiverse in Madness is now sitting on a global tally of $909 million, which makes it the 11th top-earning installment in the entire MCU, not to mention the seventh-biggest solo adventure.
Those figures are a million (or billion, if we’re being specific) miles away from No Way Home, but it’s still more than Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Eternals combined, and substantially higher than 17 of Marvel Studios’ other comic book adaptations featuring marquee characters like Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and Spider-Man.
In short; Kevin Feige’s superhero series has once again reaffirmed itself as the industry’s biggest draw, with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness having lain down the gauntlet for Thor: Love and Thunder to try and surpass in little over a month.
