While Top Gun: Maverick may have been #1 over the Memorial Day weekend, another film has climbed the 2022 domestic box office charts to claim the top spot. Thanks to a $16 million weekend gross, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is now the highest-grossing film both in the U.S. and worldwide. The latest MCU installment has pulled in more than $370 million domestically, just enough to push past the $369 million amassed by The Batman earlier this year. Multiverse of Madness continues to fare well across the globe as well, accumulating a gross of more than $868 million following the holiday weekend.
The domestic cume for Multiverse of Madness is enough to place the film within the top 50 highest-grossing domestic films of all time. It's now the 12th MCU entry into the top 50, which also means Multiverse of Madness has made enough money to be placed among the top half of Marvel Studios films. The Doctor Strange sequel has outpaced Spider-Man: Homecoming, Guardians of the Galaxy, Iron Man, and Thor: Ragnarok, and is a little more than $19 million away from leaping over Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.
If Multiverse of Madness can hold on to the top spot through the end of 2022, it would be the second year in a row that Disney and Marvel have had the #1 film at the domestic box office, a feat which the powerhouse studios have achieved in three of the last four years as well. 2018 was won by Black Panther, Avengers: Endgame dominated in 2019, and following the pandemic-affected year of 2020 Marvel was back on top last year with Spider-Man: No Way Home. It's going to be a tall task for Multiverse of Madness to stay at #1, however, as the box office competition will be very stiff over the next few months.
The Summer Movie Season is Full of Competition for Multiverse of Madness
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Memorial Day weekend is the official kick-off of the summer movie season, and there are plenty of high profile blockbusters on their way to theaters around the country. Top Gun: Maverick was just the tip of the iceberg, and the Tom Cruise legacy sequel is off to a great start with an estimated $124 million debut. The deck is clear for Maverick this upcoming weekend as well, as there are no major new releases coming into the domestic marketplace. David Cronenberg's Crimes of the Future will be getting a wide release, but the film is not expected to challenge Cruise at the box office. The biggest competition for Maverick will be coming on June 10 with Jurassic World: Dominion, the third and final film in the Jurassic World franchise, and what's said to be the end of the Jurassic saga. Each prior Jurassic World film made more than $400 million domestically, so Dominion should be able to find success this summer.
The hits keep coming after Dominion, as Pixar returns to theaters on June 17 with Lightyear, the Minions are back in Minions: The Rise of Gru on July 1, and then Thor: Love and Thunder will be making its debut on July 8. That's not to mention smaller films that could make some noise as well, such as Elvis, The Black Phone, and Where the Crawdads Sing. Multiverse of Madness may be #1 for now, but it's going to be hard to keep that title for the rest of the summer with so many major films coming to a theater near you.