'Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness' made a smashing debut at the Indian box office on Friday.
The Marvel superhero film starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Elizabeth Olsen in lead roles recorded an excellent first day at the ticket windows with the film earning around Rs 27-28 crore nett on its opening day. While the film has recorded one of the biggest openings for a Hollywood film in India, it falls around 15% short of the collections earned by Tom Holland's 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' which also featured Cumberbatch in a leading role.
According to boxofficeindia.com, the film has officially registered the fourth-best opening for a Hollywood film in India. 'Multiverse Of Madness' now stands behind 'Avengers: Endgame', 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' and 'Avengers: Infinity Way'.
As predicted, the film fell short of matching the 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' collections in the South, despite recording fantastic numbers that matched pre-pandemic times.
Riding under the popularity of the Marvel banner, 'Multiverse Of Madness' has helped the 'Doctor Strange' franchise beat its previous lifetime box office collections. According to the report, the 2016 'Doctor Strange' film opened to just Rs 2.61 crore nett and recorded a lifetime collection of Rs 25 crore nett. With its Rs 28 crore start, 'Multiverse Of Madness' has beaten the collections of the original flick in just one day.
'Doctor Strange 2' has also set the ball rolling for bigger Hollywood releases in the near future. The box office results ensure that there will be fireworks at the box office in December when James Cameron's 'Avatar: The Way of Water' releases in theatres. While 'Doctor Strange' had a relatively higher ticket rate, it is expected that ticket rates will be pushed higher than this and occupancy will also be better for the highly anticipated film.
