Box Office Battle: 'Doctor Strange' Wins Weekend With $85M Debut
Disney's (DIS) "Doctor Strange" earned $85M in its U.S. debut over the November 6 weekend, landing near the upper end of the forecasted $80M-$88M. The Benedict Cumberbatch-led film is the latest cinematic entry in the Marvel superhero universe and received an A in audience polls from CinemaScore, holds a 90% approval rating on reviews aggregator RottenTomatoes, and was produced with a reported budget of $165M.
In foreign markets, "Doctor Strange" added $118.7M to its $86M international gross last weekend.
Box Office Runners Up
Fox's (FOX) "Trolls" opened at $45.6M against estimates of $36M-$50M. Inspired by the children's toys of the same name, the animated film was scored A in CinemaScore polls and holds a RottenTomatoes rating of 73%.
Taking third place, Lionsgate's (LGF) Mel Gibson-directed war biopic "Hacksaw Ridge" debuted at $14.8M versus expectations for $10M-$16M. Rounding out the top five, "Tyler Perry's Boo! A Madea Halloween," also from Lionsgate, earned $7.8M while Sony's (SNE) "Inferno" added $6.2M in its second weekend, representing a drop of nearly 59%.
Other publicly traded companies in filmmaking include Time Warner (TWX), Viacom (VIA) and Comcast (CMCSA).
Disclosure: None.