Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

[Geoff Jones]

I saw Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness at Harkins Northfield today on their Cine1 screen.

My expectations were pretty low but I ended up enjoying it quite a bit. Raimi's horror (lite) touches were great, including a few moments that reminded me of The Boys. Michael Waldron (screenwriting) and Sara Finn (casting) clearly had fun with the multi-verse stuff, but without overcomplicating things. Sound Designer Jussi Tegelman's mix made full use of the Atmos surround system. There are a few draggy moments of exposition, but all in all, I recommend it.

The 70' wide Cine1 screen at Northfield remains the best place in the metro Denver area. If they turned off the new side wall decor lights during the feature, their blacks would be a little darker and the contrast would be a little better, but this complaint falls under "my lofty standards" and isn't a terrible problem.

In case anyone is interested, the complex is now fully reopened after their remodel, which was primarily about the installation of recliners. Also, the alcove filled with arcade games has been replaced by a bar.

[Mark Lane]

I really enjoyed Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. I think it helps if you have watched WandaVision on DisneyPlus before watching Dr. Strange but it is not a requirement to enjoy the movie. After watching the movie, I went back and watched WandaVision again. I plan on watching it one or two more times during it's three week run.

[Mike Blakesley]

We saw the first half hour or so of this one at CinemaCon and in true Marvel fashion, I had no idea what was going on from the opening frame on, so I probably won't watch the rest of it. Some people are really liking it and others are coming out going "whaaaaaat was that?" so I don't think this is going to have as strong word of mouth as the Spider-Man movie did....could be a long three weeks. But, maybe we'll get some repeaters...hopefully!

[James Wyrembelski]

I enjoyed this very much as well. Probably have watched it 3 times collectively by now. Just glad it's not another 2Hr and 45Min slog with an added 10 minutes of credits.

Business wise it's done well enough, although not as much as I had hoped. I bought too much into the hype and perhaps had my sights a little too high. But, everyone is doing well enough with it.

I am scared of week three though....

[Jon Dent]

I had a ton of fun catching all the visual throwbacks to Sam Raimi's back catalog, and the more batshit crazy it got the more I chuckled. Not sure if that was the intended response....

[Marcel Birgelen]

We saw the first half hour or so of this one at CinemaCon and in true Marvel fashion, I had no idea what was going on from the opening frame on, so I probably won't watch the rest of it. Some people are really liking it and others are coming out going "whaaaaaat was that?" so I don't think this is going to have as strong word of mouth as the Spider-Man movie did....could be a long three weeks. But, maybe we'll get some repeaters...hopefully!

No guarantee for your performance, but around here, it tanked pretty much in week 2, but not as much as Morbius though.

I'm not sure if Marvel is hitting the right vibes with this whole Multiverse thing...

[Mike Blakesley]

We've had a pretty good second week, but I still fear for week 3. Anytime we play one of these three-week things I sort of expect crickets in week 3; that way I'm pleasantly surprised if things hold up well.

There have been a few two-week movies this year that we would have held a third week if there wasn't something strong waiting in the wings.

[Darin Steffl]

This is doing very poor compared to the last two kid movies for us. Week 1 and 2 are averaging 50-70% less attendance than Sonic 2 and The Bad Guys did for us.

It's disappointing somewhat because the box office numbers are great nationwide but bad in our town. But then we get a kids movie that has way lower nationwide numbers than Dr Strange and those movies do way better. We're definitely a family town it seems. I assume the teenagers prefer to go the multiplex instead of our single screen.

[James Wyrembelski]

So far the 3rd weekend is holding about the same as weekend 2. I'll definitely take that. However we didn't do quite as well as other comparable locations over it's run.

Overall, a little let down but I'll take it when comparing numbers from this time last year. (Gross)

Marcel, you may be a little on to something. I've noticed more comments from people about Marvel films and they say they really don't watch them because they can no longer follow them. They haven't viewed enough of them (and that's a slog to get through) to really know what's going on anymore. I'd argue that you really don't need to in order to enjoy them. I totally enjoyed DS2 and never watched Wandavision or any of the attached films.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Marcel, you may be a little on to something. I've noticed more comments from people about Marvel films and they say they really don't watch them because they can no longer follow them. They haven't viewed enough of them (and that's a slog to get through) to really know what's going on anymore. I'd argue that you really don't need to in order to enjoy them. I totally enjoyed DS2 and never watched Wandavision or any of the attached films.

My wife used to be a big Marvel movies fan, long since I'd essentially given up on it already. I also hadn't seen Wandavision and clearly missed some of the connecting story elements, but I was still able to follow most of it. But my wife clearly wasn't, so she had a hard time getting through the movie, because a lot of stuff simply didn't make sense.

I guess that's where the difference in experience comes in.. For example, I can clearly point out where the plot of a movie like Tenet starts to unravel itself... It's not like my brain is anything special, but I guess after decades of analyzing movie plot lines, you've sufficiently trained your brain to make sense of even the most convoluted storylines. But the average moviegoer will not look at a movie that way, many people also don't prefer their movies to be a mental and intellectual workout. So I can clearly understand how they may have overcomplicated stuff in DS2 to such extent, that a lot of people simply don't follow along anymore.

Another problem I see with this "Multiverse" thing, is that people may perceive this as a rather cheap trick to recycle the existing Marvel characters by simply changing and mixing some of their abilities and characteristics around, instead of coming up with something completely new and fresh.

[James Wyrembelski]

Another problem I see with this "Multiverse" thing, is that people may perceive this as a rather cheap trick to recycle the existing Marvel characters by simply changing and mixing some of their abilities and characteristics around, instead of coming up with something completely new and fresh.

I would agree with that and I've heard from several patrons that exact sentiment. It doesn't really matter if X character died or whatever. They have an infinite amount of copies that exist in another universe!

[Mike Blakesley]

That sounds like the kind of money grubbing trick that a certain company would try to get away with, although I don't want to mention any names.

I've noticed patrons on this one just come out with a "eh" look on their face. If a movie is really good, they'll come out smiling and chattering about what they just saw. This one, some come out confused, some look like they've been asleep for two hours, and some just have a blank stare like they have no idea what happened.

I gave up on Marvel movies for the exact reason James stated above.... they're too convoluted. Too many cross references and callbacks and call-forwards and whatever to keep track of. They're not even "superheroes" anymore, they're just random characters from random places that have random abilities to do whatever animated miracle the scene needs in order to sort-of work. I have no time to watch all the various TV series and I don't wish to be scratching my head over whole scenes because I happened to miss "X" movie six years ago. Even my friend Keith, who is a die-hard Marvel fan and can recite this stuff backwards and forwards, has not shown up to see this movie and he told me he's pretty much "meh" about it.

Some movies are just a chore to slog through the last few days and I get a small bit of satisfaction when I can delete them off the server. This is one of those movies. I do have to say, it's holding up better than a lot of third-week movies have, so at least I'll give it that. But I'm sick of it.