Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has suffered one of the MCU’s steepest box office drops in the second weekend.
According to Deadline (opens in new tab), the film had a 67% decline at the box office and brought in $61 million, as reported by Disney – though other studios put the numbers at a 68% drop for $60 million. Either figure makes this one of the MCU’s biggest second weekend drops ever, alongside Black Widow (which fell 67%) and Spider-Man: No Way Home (which fell 68%).
But, it’s worth noting that No Way Home has become one of the highest-grossing movies of all time and its box office decline can be put down to its pre-Christmas release window and the huge amounts of money it made in its first week. Black Widow, meanwhile, had a simultaneous release on Disney Plus Premier Access – so it’s difficult to draw a solid conclusion for what the drop might mean for Doctor Strange 2’s box office prospects going forward.
As for the sequel’s huge drop, Deadline put the reason down to bad word of mouth, along with less theatrical showings.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness brought in a huge $450 million globally in its opening weekend and debuted to mixed to positive reviews, with its Rotten Tomatoes score currently sitting at 74%. The film stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange, Benedict Wong as Wong, Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff, Rachel McAdams as Christine Palmer, and Xochitl Gomez as America Chavez.
Doctor Strange 2 is in theaters now. You can get up to speed on the MCU with our ultimate guide to Marvel Phase 4, and catch up on all the Marvel TV shows and movies on Disney Plus now.