Box Office: 'Doctor Strange 2' Opens to Boffo $185M, $450M Globally

►The Sorcerer stays supreme. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness burst out the gate with $185 million in its debut weekend to land one of the biggest openings of all time domestically — and the second best of the pandemic era — for a stellar global start of $450 million.

Sam Raimi’s movie landed the 11th biggest domestic launch in history and the seventh biggest opening for any MCU title behind Avengers: Age of Ultron ($191.3 million), Black Panther ($202 million), The Avengers ($207.3 million), Avengers: Infinity War ($257.7 million), Spider-Man: No Way Home ($260.1 million) and Avengers: Endgame ($357.1 million), not adjusted for inflation. The latter three top the overall list of the biggest openings.

THR's Pamela McClintock writes that Doctor Strange 2’s performance is a huge victory for Hollywood and theater owners as the 2022 box office season officially kicks off. After more than two years of fits and starts due to COVID-19, studios are finally ready to release a parade of delayed tentpoles. The box office report. 

—Too dark for PG-13? Staying with Doctor Strange 2, there was a raging debate on social media about whether the intense, dark and violent themes of the MCU film deserved an R-rating rather than PG-13. The debate created such a stir, the topic was trending Sunday on Twitter. The story. 

—"This is a fight for people’s right to have control over their bodies." John Oliver went after the Supreme Court on Sunday’s Last Week Tonight following the recent news that it had reportedly voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, a move that would end the nationwide right to legal abortion. Oliver called for elected officials to "stop tiptoeing around the issue of abortion and take steps to properly safeguard it." The story. 

—What's Naʼvi for autonomous sensory meridian response? Here it is, the first teaser trailer for James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water. The first look was playing exclusively in theaters over the weekend, ahead of Doctor Strange 2, and hit online platforms this morning. The teaser trailer. 

—"Show of solidarity." U2 frontman Bono and guitarist The Edge performed in a Kyiv subway station that serves as a bomb shelter on Sunday, showing their support for Ukrainians trying to fend off the Russian invasion. Bono  tweeted that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “invited us to perform in Kyiv as a show of solidarity with the Ukrainian people and so that’s what we’ve come to do." The video. 

Tony Awards 2022 Nominations 

►Big day for MJs. Michael R. Jackson's musical A Strange Loop topped the Tony Awards nominations this morning with 11 nods. Indeed, it was a big morning for people named Michael Jackson as the musical about the late King of Pop, MJ, scored 10 nods, tied with Paradise Square for the second-most nominations this morning. The nominations. 

—"How many of you would like to hit me?" David Letterman took the stage for a Netflix Is a Joke Festival event Friday and appeared to respond to the recent attack on Dave Chappelle at the Hollywood Bowl. Letterman hosted a live comedy show Los Angeles and at the start of the evening he made apparent reference to Chappelle getting attacked Tuesday night. The story. 

—Beefed up security. On Saturday night, just four days after Dave Chappelle was attacked onstage at the Hollywood Bowl, John Mulaney took the stage at the venue to heightened awareness around security and safety measures. Also performing as part of Netflix Is a Joke Fest, Mulaney teased about the incident without mentioning Chappelle by name, joking at one point during the show, “we have great security. This fence is so jumpable it’s crazy." The story.

—No dice. The Cannes Film Festival has confirmed that it has declined press accreditation requests from Russian journalists associated with publications that do not adhere to Cannes’ position on Russia’s war on Ukraine. The festival has publicly condemned Russia’s war on Ukraine and has officially uninvited all official Russian delegates or anyone linked to the Russian government from taking part. The story.

Massive Movie Marketing Spends Are Back As Summer Season Kicks Off

►"How do you stand out once again? It’s a minefield out there." After two years, all of Hollywood is hoping the summer movie season is a "thing" once more and throwing sacks of money at pricey multi-platform advertising campaigns to entice audiences. THR's Pamela McClintock writes that challenges remain for movie marketers, not least, the the ultra-competitive jam packed schedule and the increasing difficulty in reaching broad audiences with TV ads. The analysis.

—"We have special tricks up our sleeve." More on summer movie marketing, Pamela spoke to Paramount's veteral global marketing head Marc Weinstock about the ongoing challenges facing the business as well as the studio's hopes of continuing its 2022 hot streak with Top Gun: Maverick. The interview. 

—Sold! TelevisaUnivision is bulking up in the streaming space as it continues preparations to launch its global streaming offering ViX+ later this year. The company has acquired the Spanish-language streamer Pantaya from Hemisphere Media Group. With a focus on movies, Pantaya had over 900,000 subscribers in 2021. The story.

—"It’s never too late!" Anthony Anderson is a Howard University graduate. The Black-ish star posted a video Sunday on Instagram sharing the news that he’d earned his bachelor of fine arts degree from the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts. Anderson previously revealed he’d dropped out of college initially because of financial reasons. The story.

—ICYMI. Saturday Night Live‘s cold open on Saturday tackled everything from the Supreme Court document leak signaling that Roe v. Wade would be overturned to the Amber Heard and Johnny Depp defamation trial. The sketch, which took place in Dark Ages England, starred host Benedict Cumberbatch, Andrew Dismukes, James Austin Johnson, Kate McKinnon, Chris Redd and Cecily Strong. The recap. 

'Doctor Who': 'Sex Education' Star Ncuti Gatwa Named Next Doctor   

►"The future is here." Ncuti Gatwa is to take command of the TARDIS, having been named the new Doctor in the BBC’s long running sci-fi series Doctor Who. He replaces the outgoing Timelord Jodie Whittaker, who unveiled she was leaving last year. Gatwa, who was a breakout star in Netflix's popular teen drama Sex Education, becomes the first Black actor to play the iconic figure. The story.

—It's a sin, no really it is. It was a night of surprises at the 2022 BAFTA TV Awards, with some hot favorites missing out on honors as the ceremony saw statuettes handed to a broad spread of winners. Among the chief upsets was It’s A Sin, Russell T. Davies' acclaimed series about the AIDS epidemic, which went into the evening with six nominations, left empty-handed. Killing Eve star Jodie Comer expectedly claimed her second leading actress BAFTA. The winners.

—Casting news. Game of Thrones star Maisie Williams and The Good Doctor‘s Freddie Highmore are set to co-star in comedy Sinner v. Saints from director Tim Kirkby (Fleabag). Set in the 1970s, the film is based on a real-life scandal involving an eccentric MENSA beauty queen who goes to extreme lengths to stop the Mormon church from stealing her sexual obsession: a nebbish Mormon missionary. The story. 

—Platinum peek. Previously unseen home movies from Queen Elizabeth II’s personal archive will be shown in a new BBC doc. The queen granted the BBC unprecedented access to hundreds of home movies shot by her, her parents and her late husband Prince Philip, as part of celebrations for her upcoming Platinum Jubilee. The story. 

In other news...

—Kendrick Lamar drops new song “The Heart Part 5”

—Wondery to release podcasts in Dolby Atmos format

—Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra bring baby home after 100 days in NICU

—Odette and Dave Annable reveal pregnancy news on Instagram

—George Perez, legendary Crisis on Infinite Earths, Wonder Woman comic book artist, dies at 67

—Mickey Gilley, country singer who helped inspire Urban Cowboy, dies at 86

—Dennis Waterman, actor in The Sweeney and Minder dies at 74

—Kang Soo-yeon, veteran Korean actress, dies at 55

What else we're reading...

—Simon Hattenstone's wonderful profile of Sissy Spacek who talks acting, grief and making her sci-fi debut in Amazon's Night Sky [Guardian]

— Luke Winkie talks to Johnny Depp's army of committed online fans and asks them why they are so convinced he's innocent [Slate]

—Mark Olsen interviews filmmaker Audrey Diwan the director of French abortion drama Happening which has become a topic of discussion due to recent events [LAT] 

—Don't know what to think about this: "New York Times swaps out Wordle word after Supreme Court leak" [Axios]

—Second Wordle story of the day: "Wordle brought ‘tens of millions’ of new users to the New York Times" [Bloomberg]

Today...  

...in 1997, Luc Besson unveiled sci-fi actioner The Fifth Element in U.S. theaters, days after the film premiered as the opening-night title at the 50th Cannes Film Festival. Starring Bruce Willis and Milla Jovovich, the film was a huge global hit, making $264 million and remains one of the highest grossing French movies ever. The original review. 

Today's birthdays: Rosario Dawson (43), Glenda Jackson (86), James L. Brooks (82), Billy Joel (73), Noah Centineo (26), Mary Mouser (26), Candice Bergen (76), Chris Diamantopoulos (47), Wendy Crewson (66), Grace Gummer (36), John Corbett (61), Julia Chan (39), Joe Carnahan (53), J.A. Bayona (47), Daniel Franzese (44), Alley Mills (71), Chuck Russell (64)