Thursday, March 28, 2024

Benedict Cumberbatch Bombs on “SNL” But Scores HUGE $84 Mil Opening Weekend with “Doctor Strange”

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Thank goodness the weekend box office for “Doctor Strange” didn’t rest on Benedict Cumberbatch’s appearance on “Saturday Night Live.” The show was uniformly awful from start to finish. Cumberbatch, one of the great young actors around, was given terrible material that just didn’t suit him. Perhaps sensing it was a bad show, Lorne Michaels brought in veteran alums Bill Murray and Dana Carvey to prop things up.

Cumberbatch can take pride, though, in knowing he scored a huge opening weekend with “Doctor Strange.” The three day box office was almost $85 million, way ahead of expectations. Disney/Marvel continues their rule over market share this year. Moviegoers just love the world Marvel comics.

Fox didn’t do badly either. “Trolls” brought in $45.6 million. That brings the animated feature with songs by Justin Timberlake to $150 million internationally. And that’s just the beginning.

Meanwhile, Mel Gibson scored $14 million for “Hacksaw Ridge,” with good reviews (but not as great as hoped). Described as “violent” and “gory,” “Hacksaw” suffers from its director’s stand on the Holocaust, anti-Semitism, women, and so on. If you don’t mind that his father is a Holocaust denier and that Mel has never denied his father, give him $10 bucks. Me, I can wait until it’s on airplane.

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.
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