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Strange Days at the Box Office

Never underestimate the drawing power of Benedict Cumberbatch in a cape.

Doctor Strange, the latest fringe Marvel character to get his own big movie deal, performed a nifty little magic trick this weekend. His titular movie teleported straight to the top of the box office, conjuring an estimated $85 million into Disney’s already packed coffers. Seems that Marvel hasn’t lost its license to basically print money.

How big was Benedict at the box office? According to Box Office Mojo, Doctor Strange bested a whole bevy of other Marvel movies featuring new-to-the-screen heroes. Captain America: The First Avenger made $65 million in 2011. Thor earned just slightly more that same year. Ant-Man, which scampered into theaters just last summer, earned $57 mil. In the extended Disney/Marvel cinematic universe, only Iron Man ($98.6 million in 2008) bests Strange. (Well, Iron Man and Guardians of the Galaxy, I suppose, which banked a stunning $94.3 million in 2014. But hey, it’s hard to compete with a sentient tree and a wisecracking raccoon.)

But as big a weekend as it was for Marvel’s surgical sorcerer, there was still plenty of money to go around for the also-rans.

Trolls, an animated movie based on the ugliest toys this side of Cabbage Patch Dolls, earned enough to make your hair stand on end. The cartoon banked $45.6 million to finish second. Mel Gibson’s bloody World War II movie Hacksaw Ridge collected $14.8 million for third place—a wee bit lower than Gibson’s last directorial effort, 2006’s Apocalypto ($15 million).

That triple box office punch was too much for Boo! A Madea Halloween, the two-time defending champ. Underneath that withering assault, Madea slid all the way down to fourth with $7.8 million. But don’t feel too sorry for the old girl. Madea’s total take now stands at $65 million—trailing only Madea Goes to Jail ($90.5 million) and Madea’s Witness Protection ($65.6 million) on her all-time earnings list.

Inferno is rapidly descending into the box office’s ninth circle of irrelevancy. It collected about $6.3 million to finish fifth, barely staving off The Accountant for a spot in the Top Five.

Lower in the standings, Moonlight—the first true Oscar-bait heavyweight to roll out this awards season—expanded this week and earned $1.3 million, finishing 11th.

Final figures update: 1. Doctor Strange, $85.1 million; 2. Trolls, $46.6 million; 3. Hacksaw Ridge, $15.2 million; 4. Boo! A Madea Halloween, $7.7 million; 5. Inferno, $6.2 million.