Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has arrived this weekend as another Marvel paradox of a movie that doesn’t quite hit the heights when it comes to industry ratings, but is about to become the biggest movie of the year by some margin with a $200 opening box office. While critic reviews have been very mixed, the latest Doctor Strange adventure has landed the second-lowest CinemaScore grade of the MCU movies released to date.
Marvel Studios has taken audiences into the multiverse on a mind-bending trip with Doctor Strange, Wong, Wanda Maximoff and America Chavez, and while the interconnected movie is wowing audiences and racing towards a huge opening weekend box office it has brought in a B+ CinemaScore grade, which equals that of Thor, and just beats Eternals which landed a B rating. However, despite being one of the only Marvel movies to not land an A grade, it is still not bad considering the ratings go from A to F, it is still at the top end of the scale.
CinemaScore ratings are not the same as aggregated critic scores on the likes of Rotten Tomatoes, but instead are the result of questions asked on opening night and related more to expectation vs reality. Whether Marvel’s constant teasing of more cameos and more dimensions turned out lead to some disappointment, the score is more a reflection of the movie’s marketing than the film itself. While there is no indication given as to exactly what led to fan expectation not quite being met, it still doesn’t seem to have done any harm to Multiverse of Madness’ audience numbers.
Multiverse of Madness Is The First MCU Movie To Heavily Link To A Disney+ Show
Marvel’s movies have become well known for interconnecting with part entries in the franchise, and after over twenty movies there is a lot of benefit in having seen at least some of the movies released as part of the MCU before watching Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. However, the film is the first to also incorporate storylines from one of Marvel Studios’ Disney+ series, having some loose connection to Loki but more importantly to the events of WandaVision.
WandaVision told Wanda Maximoff’s story following the events of Avengers: Endgame, and ended with Wanda transforming into Scarlet Witch and getting her hands on the Darkhold, a book of dark magic. While it is possible to follow Wanda’s story with only minimal details, and in fact the movie does occasionally have a couple of explanatory moments to try and help those who either haven’t seen WandaVision or just don’t remember everything that transpired.
As well as opening up the multiverse, the latest Doctor Strange movie also lets fans know that knowing just the movies of the MCU may no longer be enough to get the full experience in future. With the Marvel Cinematic Universe ushering in around a dozen new TV shows and another several movies in the next year, now could be a good time to catch up on the entire Marvel catalog, which is available on Disney+.