Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness may have landed some mixed reviews from critics for being another heavily interlinked Marvel adventure, but that hasn’t made the slightest bit of difference when it comes to the movie’s box office standings at the end of its first weekend. As expected, the first Marvel theatrical release of 2022 has seen off all competition at the worldwide box office to claim the biggest opening weekend of the year so far and is already the third highest-grossing movie of the year with $450 million, as per Box Office Mojo. The total also gives it the fourth-highest opening for an MCU movie.

Sam Raimi’s dark trip into the Marvel multiverse with Doctor Strange has doubled the opening weekend takings of The Batman, and will likely pass that movie’s total gross in the next week or so, proving that despite the constant complaints about Marvel movies being too reliant on audiences having already watched the previous movies, and now Disney+ TV shows, before delving into new films. With Thor: Love and Thunder arriving in just two months’ time, this is certainly going to be an encouraging result for Marvel studios.

Multiverse of Madness brings with it the usual links to past Marvel movies, continuing Strange’s story from Spider-Man: No Way Home, incorporating story threads from Avengers: Endgame and 2016’s Doctor Strange. However, this time around, for the first time, the movie also has strong links to a number of Disney+ series such as WandaVision, What If…? and Loki. This means that to get the best out of the movie, it is best to have some knowledge of more than just Marvel’s theatrical releases from here on out.

Related: Quentin Tarantino's Disney Complaints Resurface Amid Extensive Doctor Strange 2 Showings

Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness Will Be Marvel’s Next $1 Billion Movie

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Marvel Studios

It seems that every time Marvel Studios come out with another huge box office hit, there is a sense that they are not going to be able to match it again. Avengers: Endgame smashed so many records, and acted as a sort of conclusion to the MCU’s story at that point, leading many to believe that it would be hard for future movies to be anywhere near as popular. Then came Spider-Man: Far From Home, which proved that Endgame wasn’t the end of the story by any means. A global pandemic later, and Spider-Man: No Way Home showed a blatant disregard for Covid and found itself bringing in near-Endgame audience numbers as one of the highest-grossing movies of all time.

Now Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is seemingly doing it all over again. While it is unlikely the movie will hit the heights of No Way Home, it is almost certainly going to become the first $1 billion movie of the year, and that is without being released in Russia and some countries that have banned it for LGBTQ+ content. With a lot of interest in where Marvel’s multiverse is headed, and the movie promising a number of cameo roles including the return of Patrick Stewart as Professor X, it seems that fans of the MCU are more than ready to delve deeper into the unknown, which is just as well as Marvel Studios are not planning to stop anytime soon.