Marvel wins again as 'Doctor Strange' is magic at the box office
Doctor Strange proves, yet again, that Marvel Studios can afford to get weird from time to time. More like this movie, Ant-Man and Guardians of the Galaxy, please.
The latest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a box office hit, with an estimated $85 million opening weekend in the United States. That's right in line with the $85.7 million opening for Thor: The Dark World in 2013, which was Marvel's only other fall release to date.
It's only the 10th-largest start across Marvel's 14 MCU releases to date, but it's also the #13 opening in the history of November releases. Considering that most of the movies ahead of it have "Harry Potter," "Hunger Games" or "Twilight" in their titles, that's not too shabby.
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After those, only Skyfall and Thor: The Dark World are ahead of Strange.
Trolls falls in at a distant #2 behind the Marvel flick, with an estimated $45.6 million at the box office. Having Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake lead a strong ensemble cast helps, but Trolls gives moviegoing parents an alternative to the edgier Strange.
Hacksaw Ridge, the latest from director Mel Gibson, opened wide for a #3 finish, with an estimated $14.8 million. Gibson will forever be chased by his past troubles with misogyny and anti-Semitism, but a strong critical reception for his Andrew Garfield-led World War II drama led to a solid start at the box office.
The rest of the weekend's domestic top five is filled out by Tyler Perry's Boo! A Madea Halloween (#4, $7.8 million estimated) and Inferno (#5, $6.3 million estimated). Boo! is a success for Perry, with $65 million grossed to date -- the third-highest of his Madea films.
It's a less happy outcome for Inferno, the latest Tom Hanks-led Dan Brown adaptation in the Da Vinci Code series. The two-week domestic total of $26.1 million is bad news for a feature said to be budgeted at $75 million, especially given the 58 percent slide down from its $14.9 million debut.
That said, the Brown adaptations are a proven success overseas. The first movie earned $540.7 million from foreign markets in 2006, and Angels & Demons followed three years later with $352.6 million.
Inferno currently stands at $159.3 million in foreign ticket sales. That's a success for Sony, irrespective of the movie's domestic performance. All of which is to say: don't assume the domestic flop means bad times ahead for the Robert Langdon series.
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
