Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: Benedict Cumberbatch film collects ₹10 crore in India in advance bookings

Marvel’s upcoming film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has already begun strongly at the box office even though the release is ten days away. The film has reportedly earned ₹10 crore through ticket sales in its first 20 days of advance bookings. This makes the film the second-best performing foreign film in terms of advance bookings for day one behind last year’s Spider-Man: No Way Home. The Tom Holland-starrer had raked in ₹16 crore in advance bookings for its release day. Also read: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: New leak addresses the screen time Tom Cruise’s Iron Man gets in the film

The Benedict Cumberbatch and Elizabeth Olsen-starrer will release in theatres on May 6 in English, with dubbed versions in major Indian languages such as Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam. The craze for the film, as per trade analysts, is quite high, particularly since it is being viewed by many as a sort of sequel to Spider-Man: No Way Home. Many industry insiders are projecting it to have a lifetime earning of over ₹100 crore in India.

Given the anticipation for the title, the advance booking for the film opened a full 30 days before the film’s release, making this the first-ever such advance for any Hollywood release.

Exhibitors and distributors say that while Marvel films have always done good business in the metros, Doctor Strange 2 has given promising signs by getting good early business from tier 2 centres too. In a statement, Rajender Singh Jyala, Chief Programming Officer at INOX Leisure, said, “Metro cities have always been the Marvel fanatics but this time with Doctor Strange what surprises us is that we have got a phenomenal response from tier 2 markets as well. This indeed shows the reach that Marvel films and characters have created over the years. We are delighted that the advance booking numbers are phenomenal across the INOX cinemas, and the film is all set to open with big numbers.”

Doctor Strange 2 deals with the concept of variants and multiverse and hence, there are chances of several actors making cameos either as variants of existing characters or returning to play fan favourite roles from other franchises. Directed by Sam Raimi, the film is part of Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Phase 4.