Box Office: Firestarter flames out while Doctor Strange dominates despite a big drop

Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness maintains the top spot at the box office but it suffers a sharper than expected decline in weekend two.

The Doctor Strange sequel grossed $61 million over the weekend which represents a decline of 67% from the previous weekend. Deadline is reporting while this decline is in line with some second weekend drops like Spider-Man: No Way Home (-67.5%) and Black Widow (-67.8%), but it appears that the decline has more to do with mixed word of mouth. Keep in mind that the film scored a “B+” CinemaScore which is on the lower end of Marvel efforts and that the film is coming off a bit more divisive than most of their movies. That being said, the film’s robust opening weekend is saving the film from looking too bad in weekend two. Weekday sales were solid and the movie is at $291.8 million domestic after the weekend and will cross $300 million this week. All of this looks great on paper but some will wonder how to prevent a second weekend plunge like this for Marvel in the future.

In second place we find The Bad Guys with a gross of $6.9 million. That’s a decline of 28% weekend to weekend as the film continues to find solid word of mouth with the family audience. To date, The Bad Guys has grossed $66.2 million at the domestic box office and a finish around the $80 million mark seems likely by the end of its run.

Maintaining the third spot is Sonic The Hedgehog 2 with a gross of $4.5 million. That’s a dip of just 24% from the previous weekend as our little blue guy continues to generate nice profits for Paramount Pictures. Even with a title like Doctor Strange in the mix, the Sonic sequel is still holding strong after six weeks of release. To date, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 has grossed $175.6 million at the domestic box office.

Debuting in fourth with very little heat is the Firestarter reboot with a gross of $3.8 million. Not even a start on Friday The 13th could give this horror title a bump as there seemed to be little interest from moviegoers to see this theatrically. Some are blaming the day-and-date release plan on Peacock for hurting numbers but it appears this would’ve been D.O.A no matter what. The film earned a dismal “C-” CinemaScore which is no good, even for horror. The word around town is that Universal and Blumhouse knew this was a stinker and the Peacock move was made to try to minimize the damage. Even with a slim $12 million budget, Firestarter is in bad shape and Universal is going to have to spin its Peacock figures to try to label it some kind of a success at home.

Rounding out the top five is Everything Everywhere all at Once, which continues its stellar word of mouth journey with a gross of $3.3 million. That’s a slim decline of just 6% as the A24 release continues to prove that rolling out a film slowly can still generate box office interest. The movie is thriving based on a ground swell of support to see something truly unique and original. No splashy marketing campaigns were necessary. Everything Everywhere all at once is doing well because it’s simply a good film. To date, the industry’s other multiverse release has grossed $47.1 million at the domestic box office.

What are your thoughts on this weekend’s box office results? Did you think Doctor Strange would hold better in weekend two? Did the Peacock release hurt Firestarter‘s box office potential? Let us know in the comments below!