When the biggest commercial criticism that can be levied at Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is that it failed to land one of the 10 highest-grossing domestic opening weekends of all-time, having to settle for a paltry 11th instead, you know the 28th installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is an instant monster-sized success.
Sam Raimi’s psychedelic and scary superhero sequel took just three days to overtake Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Eternals at the global box office after debuting to a mind-blowing $450 million, $185 million of which came from domestic shores to give Multiverse of Madness the third top-earning weekend for any non-Avengers MCU theatrical release, behind only Spider-Man: No Way Home and Black Panther.
In addition, that’s now firmly established Benedict Cumberbatch’s Master of the Mystical Arts and Benedict Wong’s Sorcerer Supreme as cinema’s to pre-eminent conjurers, with the recent adventure of Albus Dumbledore and Newt Scamander already nothing but a distant memory.
Despite playing in theaters for the better part of a month, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore has only managed to cobble together $363 million. In short, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness brought in close to $100 million more in the space of 72 hours than the latest chapter in the Wizarding World managed to accrue in in a month.
That means we can definitively and unequivocally call Stephen Strange and Wong the industry’s favorite spell-casting characters, adding a further notch to the MCU’s belt of accolades.
