Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness once again took the No. 1 spot at the domestic box office with another $61 million over the weekend, blowing away the No. 2 film by a multitude of nine. 

So far, the film has sold $396 million in the U.S. and $688 million worldwide. 

I guess we have to consider Benedict Cumberbatch to be a major movie star now? That’s weird to me. While I love the idea of Cumberbatch being the lead in a Raimi film that everyone is going to see, I can’t help but wish it was a much more interesting project. 

Cumberbatch should have, in my opinion, won the Oscar a couple months ago for his performance in The Power of the Dog. Will Smith won, unfortunately, but now Cumberbatch is maybe the biggest actor in the world, and everyone wants to work with him. He’s having his moment. 

Next up for the actor is a lead role in Wes Anderson’s The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (which hopefully gets a new title), a TV adaptation of The 39 Steps, and a couple flicks with directors I’m not familiar with. 

Being the title character in a Anderson is a pretty big deal.

Also at the Box

The silly animated film The Bad Guys took the No. 2 spot at the box, selling another $6.1 million, bringing the film’s domestic sales total to just over $66 million; add in foreign sales and the film has now brought in $166 million. I figured this one would do OK, but did not expect these numbers. 

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 took the No. 3 spot, selling $4.55 million, bringing that film’s six-week sales total to $175 million in the U.S. and $355 million worldwide. 

A remake of Firestarter and the new classic Everything Everywhere All at Once rounded out the Top 5 with $3.8 million and $3.3 million, respectively. 

Everything has sold $47 million in the U.S., so look for this one to not only rank well on a lot of year-end lists, but probably get a lot of attention come awards season. 

Also of note, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore continued to bomb, selling just $90 million over its first five weeks of release. Ouch. 

New This Week

Two films will see wide release this weekend, starting with the very promising Men, from director Alex Garland and starring the incredible Jessie Buckley. This one should be special. 

Also out everywhere is Downton Abbey: A New Era, starring Hugh Bonneville, Jim Carter, Michelle Dockery, and Elizabeth McGovern. The last Downton film did really well, so it’ll be interesting to see how this one does at the box office. 

A number of smaller films will see limited release this weekend as well, including Digger, 2000 Mules, Hold Your Fire, Distant, and a Bruce Willis stinker called Vendetta. 

So, aside from Men, not the greatest release week. Go see Men, I say. Do it.

ScreenRant

There are a whole lot of fun or exciting movies coming out over the next several weeks as summer heats up, including: The Bob’s Burgers Movie; Top Gun: Maverick; Watcher; The Overnight; Jurassic World: Dominion; Lightyear; Official Competition; The Black Phone; Elvis; The Forgiven; another Minions movie; Taika Waititi’s much anticipated Thor: Love and Thunder; Where the Crawdads Sing; Nope; Bullet Train; and something called Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. 

OK, so maybe it’s not the best batch of movies ever. Lucky for us, the NBA playoffs are going to take us into the summer. I think it’s going to be Warriors over the Celtics in seven games.