After a trio of non-sequels that came out in 2021 that didn’t crack the half-million mark at the global box office, it appears that Marvel Studios is back to making billion-dollar movies again. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is just $200 million away from reaching a billion worldwide. At $800 million, Doctor Strange 2 is currently the biggest film to premiere this 2022, surpassing Warner Bros.’s The Batman, with the second-largest take since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, displacing No Time to Die and ranking just below Spider-Man: No Way Home. We’re curious to find out just how big the Doctor Strange sequel can get, but we would be shocked if it didn’t at least rake in $1 billion when it’s all said and done. Following the early reactions to Doctor Strange 2 ahead of its premiere on May 6, the latest MCU film pulled in $90 million on its first day in theaters alone. However, the movie failed to sustain its momentum due to various reasons. One fairly common and very valid criticism about Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is its runtime. As one of the most highly anticipated MCU movies in years (and that’s saying something), the follow-up to 2016’s Doctor Strange more than deserves a longer screen time. Instead, the final product was at least more than half an hour shorter than the initial leaks. There’s this nagging feeling that Doctor Strange 2 should have been a more enjoyable and entertaining film. This isn’t to say that it wasn’t, but a longer cut would have helped dispel these doubts. Unfortunately, we don’t have America Chavez’s multiverse portal punching powers to find out if there’s a version of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness out there that retained its nearly three-hour-long runtime. In the meantime, MCU fans can look forward to Ms. Marvel’s debut on Disney+ on May 8 with Thor: Love and Thunder coming after in theaters on July 8.
