FRIDAY UPDATE, Refresh for latest…: Disney/Marvel’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness continued casting a spell over the international box office on Thursday, lifting the running offshore cume to $85.7M through two days of release. Combined with Thursday’s $36M in domestic previews, the global total so far is already $121.7M — and the weekend has barely begun.
Overseas, the sequel added a further 24 markets on Thursday to bring the total to 44 so far in release. Across the first two days offshore, the Sam Raimi-directed film is running just 12% below Spider-Man: No Way Home, 172% ahead of the original Doctor Strange and 197% above The Batman on a like-for-like basis.
New on Thursday were the UK, Australia, Brazil and Mexico. Notable in the mix, Benedict Cumberbatch’s sorcerer had a $6M UK opening day, bigger than No Time To Die, which also bowed on a Thursday. This is the third-highest launch day during the pandemic era and the biggest opening Thursday of 2022 in the market. The film garnered an 83% market share.
In Latin America, there were No. 1s across the board with the film landing within the Top 10 of all-time debuts in several markets including Brazil, Mexico, Ecuador, Central America and Peru. Brazil at $5.1M was the second-highest opening day during the pandemic and the sixth-biggest in industry history. The market share was 93%. With $8M, Mexico logged the second-best opening day of the pandemic, ninth in history and had a 90% share.
In Asia-Pacific, all starts are No. 1. Indonesia had an incredible 99% market share with $1.6M. Australia banked $4M for the second-best launch day of the pandemic and has an 83% share of the market.
Elsewhere, DSITMOM scored the second-best first day of the pandemic in the UAE, Israel, Czech Republic, Portugal, Greece, Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia. Market shares range from 70% to 93%.
Korea, which is a key hub on this title, leads all play through Thursday with $14.7M (including today, it is at $19.4M). Rounding out the Top 10 are Mexico ($8M), UK ($6M), Japan ($5.3M), Brazil ($5.1M), France ($4.5M), Australia ($4M), Italy ($3.3M), Germany ($2.9M) and Malaysia ($2.8M).
In IMAX, the international two-day total is $5M from 300 screens. All-time opening day records for the format were logged in the UAE, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia (the first three had bigger debuts than Avengers: Endgame while the latter topped Wonder Woman). IMAX also set Wednesday opening records in Japan, Malaysia and Singapore.
Korea posted the third-highest opening day ever for IMAX on Wednesday, and then Thursday box office was 16% higher to land the biggest IMAX Thursday ever in the market and the biggest Wednesday/Thursday IMAX total for any film there — topping both Avengers: Endgame and Avengers: Infinity War.
While China, Russia and parts of the Middle East will be sitting out Strange 2, markets still to come today include Spain, Poland, South Africa, Turkey and India.
We will continue to update throughout the weekend.
PREVIOUS, THURSDAY: Disney/Marvel’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness began offshore release on Wednesday in 20 markets and is already doing some crazy numbers. With $27.2M through yesterday, the first-day overall results are only 4% below Spider-Man: No Way Home and a staggering 153% ahead of the original 2016 Doctor Strange, as well as 210% ahead of The Batman on a like-for-like basis at today’s rates.
Across Asia Pacific, the Benedict Cumberbatch-starrer bowed No. 1, likewise for the European markets that have opened including France, Italy and Germany.
Market shares on the Sam Raimi-directed sequel are coming in above 60% and as high as 90%.
Previews, not included in the $27.2M to date reported above, are strong for the Sorcerer Supreme, including $3.5M in Mexico and $2.7M in Brazil and a total of $10.3M across the whole Latin America region. Despite only being previews, Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness was tops in all Latin American territories yesterday.
Meanwhile, as noted in our global preview, a key part of the international box office weekend is Korea which has been very soft of late amid caution about returning to cinemas. But the market is turning up in droves for the Doctor. The gross through Thursday, which is not reflected in the $27.2M total, is an estimated $14.7M. Today was a national public holiday for Children’s Day. On Wednesday, the film logged the second-highest opening day ever for a Disney release, behind only Avengers: Endgame.
‘Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness’: Photos And Posters For The Marvel Movie
Looking more closely at the starts, here’s a rundown: Malaysia ($1.6M) scored the 2nd highest opening day in industry history; Thailand ($1.2M) logged the best opening day during the pandemic era; same for Philippines ($1.2M). Hong Kong and Vietnam notched the second-best opening day of the pandemic. In Japan, DS2 at $3.8M scored the No. 2 highest non-local opening day during the health crisis and repped the No. 3 best day one for any MCU release (behind Avengers: Endgame and Spider-Man: NWH).
In Europe, France ($3M) scored its second highest opening day during the pandemic era as did Italy ($2.2M) and Germany ($1.8M).
Excluding Thursday figures, the Top 5 Wednesday debut trips into the Multiverse are: Korea ($5.9M), Japan ($3.8M), France ($3M), Italy ($2.2M) and Germany ($1.8M).
Today sees further openings in the UK, Australia, Brazil and Mexico as well as Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Portugal, UAE, Indonesia, New Zealand, Argentina and all of the smaller Latin American territories.
MORE…
