Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is yet another monster hit for Marvel Studios. Sam Raimi’s loopy horror-themed sequel has been cleaning up at box offices around the world, scoring an impressive $450 million on its opening weekend, making it the 11th biggest opening of all time.
Along the way, it’s busted through a bunch of other notable records, particularly on its IMAX release. On the prestige format, it’s brought in $33 million, meaning that it’s the 5th highest global opening for a Marvel movie on the format, the fifth-highest IMAX domestic Thursday night preview, and the new IMAX record holder for a May release.
These figures will be a sweet relief for IMAX, which saw its business shuttered around the world during the COVID pandemic. However, despite audiences spending much of 2020 and 2021 watching movies at home it seems there’s still very much a market for the communal experience and the colossal scale of an IMAX screening.
Expect more records to be broken throughout the year as the blockbuster season kicks into gear, though the biggest IMAX release will likely come right at the end. Judging by its epic trailer James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water will be absolutely stunning on a huge screen, with the audiences still remembering how mindblowing it was to watch the original Avatar was in IMAX 3D all those years ago.
But, for now, the surprisingly creepy Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is occupying the top spot, and it seems to be one hell of a ride in an IMAX theater.
