Doctor Strange Approaching Half a Billion Dollars at Global Box Office

Fresh out of the gate, Marvel Studio’s latest franchise film, Doctor Strange, has already carved out an enviable place for itself amidst the rank and file of other Marvel Cinematic Universe tentpoles like Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Guardians of the Galaxy. The new superhero movie directed by Scott Derrickson (Sinister) and starring Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game) has already charted to the top of the box office over the course of the past two weekends, and has made well over $150 million in domestic ticket sales alone.

The surreal and trippy nature of the new movie’s central premise and surrounding narrative has resulted in a motion picture event fit to please genre fans of all stripes – with one multiverse scene in particular garnering a lot of viewer attention and fan speculation. As the second feature-length installment in Phase 3 of the MCU, Doctor Strange is primed to go down as one of the most successful standalone entries in the entire Marvel Comics movie franchise – and the latest word has the production on track to reach another major box office mark.

According to Box Office Mojo, Doctor Strange will soon have taken in half a billion dollars worldwide, with approximate global earnings of $502.8 million – its domestic total making up for $161.8 million of that. Captain America: Civil War tapped out at $1.15 billion worldwide by comparison, whereas Avengers: Age of Ultron made $1.4 billion, Iron Man 3 made $1.215 billion, and The Avengers made $1.52 billion. So, while Derrickson’s superhero epic is unlikely to go down as the MCU’s biggest box office success, it’s a sizable hit all the same.

The economic future of Marvel Studios is looking pretty bright, between the success of Doctor Strange and its other MCU film releases over the past couple of years; including, 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain America: The Winter Soldier (which, respectively, topped out at $773 million and $714 million worldwide themselves). If everything continues to go as smoothly as it has thus far in Phase 3, then Doctor Strange certainly won’t be the last MCU installment that joins the half-billion dollar club – and then some, as should be the case for upcoming Marvel films like Avengers: Infinity War.

Only time will tell how much more money Doctor Strange manage to rake in at the global box office, as it heads into its third weekend of theatrical release domestically. Thus far, it’s track record is quite impressive, and with any luck Marvel Studios will continue to rake in money from what has been an undoubtedly successful fiscal year for the studio.

KEY RELEASE DATES
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 release date: May 5, 2017
Spider-Man: Homecoming release date: Jul 7, 2017
Thor: Ragnarok release date: Nov 3, 2017
Black Panther release date: Feb 16, 2018
The Avengers: Infinity War release date: May 4, 2018
Ant-Man & The Wasp release date: Jul 6, 2018
Captain Marvel release date: Mar 8, 2019
The Avengers 4 / Untitled Avengers Movie release date: May 3, 2019