'Doctor Strange' gathers $185 million in 2022's best film opening
It's not yet Memorial Day in the U.S., but apparently it's already Marvel Day, as Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (NYSE:DIS) became the year's biggest movie opener, grossing $185 million its domestic theater debut over the weekend.
That tops a $134 million debut from The Batman (WBD) in early March. And it keeps up a now-long tradition of Marvel films opening strong in May to kickstart the summer season.
While Dr. Strange scored the best opening of 2022, it's not the biggest one of the pandemic era, as Spider-Man: No Way Home [another Marvel film, but also Sony (SONY) one] had a stunning $260 million-plus opening in December 2021.
The new Doctor Strange passed $90 million just on Friday's receipts. It added another $265 million internationally for the weekend, to zip past $450 million in worldwide grosses.
With Doctor Strange taking up all the theater space, the rival choices mostly held serve from before: The Bad Guys (NASDAQ:CMCSA) was a distant second with $9.8 million; Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (PARA) (PARAA) No. 3 with $6.2 million; and Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (WBD) fourth with $4 million.
And the Marvel film looks likely to keep raking in the dough, at least until Paramount (PARA) (PARAA) rolls out Top Gun: Maverick on May 27, after several delays.
IMAX reported its biggest May global opening ever, with $33 million, based on the Marvel hit.
Cinema names set to benefit from the good movie news include AMC Entertainment (NYSE:AMC); Cineworld (OTCPK:CNNWF); Cinemark (CNK); (IMAX); Marcus (MCS); Reading International (RDI); Cineplex (OTCPK:CPXGF); National CineMedia (NCMI).