Doctor Strange 2 Box Office Predictions

By: Olena

Posted: May 4, 2022

Updated: May 4, 2022

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will premiere in the US on May 6
The movie is the sequel to the 2016 Doctor Strange and the 28th film of MCU
Will its box office surpass the first part about Stephen Strange’s adventures?

Image source: Flickr

The summer movie season kicks off with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The superhero film has already premiered in Hollywood but will be released in cinemas in the US later this month. What are the final Doctor Strange 2 box office predictions as well as its chance to beat the first part in the opening weekend? There is no doubt that Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is one of the most awaited movies of the year. The sequel to the 2016 Doctor Strange will premiere on May 6 in the US and most countries around the world. The movie has already been out in Hollywood but no data about the plot details or potential box office records are available so far. Therefore, we are trying to predict whether Doctor Strange 2 will be on the list of the highest-grossing movies in 2022 or not.

What is Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness about?

Although Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has already premiered in Hollywood, this plot summary is free of spoilers. The events of the movie take place right after the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home. Strange faces the consequences of casting a forbidden spell for Peter Parker. The spell opens a portal to the multiverse, where Strange and other characters have to travel to. However, this time a threat may be too overwhelming for them to handle. Doctor Strange 2 brings back Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange, Elizabeth Olsen as Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff), Benedict Wong as Wong, and a few other familiar faces. Besides them, viewers will meet a couple of new characters. One of them is Xochitl Gomez as America Chavez, whose character’s background caused a wave of controversy in several countries.

Problems with the Doctor Strange sequel

The way of Doctor Strange 2 to the cinemas wasn’t cloudless. At first, several reshoots took place in the United Kingdom just two months before the premiere. This is usually a bad sign, however, there is not much information about the reasons for reshoots. The effect the movie reshoots had on odds at Bovada is another proof of bad luck.

However, the main problem Doctor Strange 2 has faced is its ban in three countries. Theaters in Saudi Arabia and Egypt refused to release the upcoming movie due to America Chavez played by Xochitl Gomez. Her character is presented as a member of the LGBTQ+ community who was raised by two mothers. Despite the fact that Chavez’s background in Doctor Strange 2 corresponds to her story in the comics, Saudi Arabia and Egypt banned the movie in their territories. In addition to this, it will not premiere in Russia and Ukraine due to the military conflict. What is even worse, the Doctor Strange sequel has been officially banned in China. Interestingly, no MCU film has been released in China since the 2019 Spider-Man: Far From Home. The country provided no official reason for any ban, so all we can do in this situation is guessing. One of the reasons is probably an episode with a brief shot of The Epoch Times, a newspaper that criticizes the Chinese Communist Party. Another reason might be the same issue Egypt and Saudi Arabia had with a gay character. All in all, the ban in China will cost the Multiverse of Madness hundreds of millions of dollars.

Doctor Strange 2 box office predictions

Should we await the financial success of Multiverse of Madness after all these controversies? According to online betting sites in the US, the movie still has a pretty good chance to become a box office hit. Surely, it will never repeat the success of No Way Home which grossed $1.8 billion and broke several records, but Doctor Strange 2 was never supposed to. The latest Doctor Strange 2 box office predictions state that the movie could earn $200 million just on its opening weekend. The odds of 1.90 at Bovada Sportsbook confirm this theory. If so, the movie will earn around $450 million in the US only. Considering the ban in China, Doctor Strange 2 could end its theatrical release with the same or slightly worse box office than the first movie. Just a reminder that Doctor Strange grossed $677 million worldwide. Following the official data, $232 million came from the US and $110 million came from China back in 2016.