The summer movie season is finally here, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is bringing the heat. With $90 million on Friday after $36 million in Thursday previews, the Marvel superhero film is looking to exceed expectations with an opening weekend bow of at least $190 million. It does, however, have a realistic chance of crossing the $200 million mark, although Disney is playing it conservative, estimating a three-day finish in the $170 million to $185 million range.
Either way, it’s still going to be the biggest debut of 2022, outpacing The Batman’s $134 million bow in March, and the biggest since December’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, which made an astounding $260 million in its first three days. It’s also poised to be Disney’s biggest opening since last year’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which made $75 million in its first three days. Remember, No Way Home was a Sony release. But Doctor Strange 2 is playing like the direct follow-up to the Spider-Man film that it was always supposed to be. Its opening day is the seventh-biggest in history, and five of the top 10 titles now belong to Marvel Studios.
Starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange, the superhero sequel is directed by Sam Raimi, who is largely credited with having ushered in the era of the modern day superhero blockbuster with his Spider-Man trilogy. Doctor Strange 2 has already made $230 million internationally and will top the $400 million mark by Sunday.
The number two spot was claimed by Universal’s release of Dreamworks’ The Bad Guys, which was quietly sitting at the top of the box office for the last two weekends. The kid-friendly animated heist film made $2.5 million on Friday for an estimated third-weekend haul of $11.1 million. The film’s running domestic total now stands at just under $59 million.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 made $1.6 million on its fifth Friday, and is looking at a weekend total of over $7 million. Overall, the film has made $171 million domestically, marking a legit win for Paramount, which is on a roll this year with hits such as Scream, Jackass Forever and The Lost City.
With an estimated $4 million this weekend after $1 million on Friday, Warner Bros.’ big-budget Harry Potter spinoff Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore will struggle to cross the $100 million mark. This should be alarming for the studio, which has been doing everything that it could to reignite fan interest in the struggling franchise. But with only $86 million in the bank domestically, the series’ future sure is on unsteady ground.
Finishing once again in the top five is the year’s real success story, A24’s Everything Everywhere All at Once. Directed by the Daniels, the difficult-to-describe word-of-mouth hit made $900,000 on Friday, and is looking at a $3 million seventh weekend. This takes the film’s domestic total to over $40 million, a tremendous result for everyone involved.
Overall business this weekend is going to be around $235 million, which is actually 18% higher than the same weekend in pre-pandemic 2019. Expect Doctor Strange 2 to dominate the box office in the coming weeks, at least until Top Gun: Maverick lands later this month, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.