After some of the recentMCUsmash successes, I can’t believe it’s been almost half a decade since the franchise last broke one key box office record.The MCU timelinehas been rife with major financial successes, which encouraged the blossoming of the Marvel movie empire as we know it today, and led to a slew of releases that quickly earned audience adoration. With that said, it’s easy to overestimate and underestimate the franchise in equal measure as a result of the high bar set for the MCU both critically and financially.
SinceAvengers: Endgameis still the second-highest-grossing movie of all time - beat out for the top spot only narrowly by James Cameron’sAvatar- conversations around theMCU’s upcoming releasesare often based on whether it seems the future releases can ever hope to compare up to this behemoth installment and its various record-breaking results. Interestingly, this aligns with conversations about one key box office record for the MCU, whichEndgameamong other releases notably broke - but which hasn’t been beaten by the franchise since all the way back in 2021.
Marvel’s Movie History Is A Prestigious One
As a franchise that’s been a major box office success for the over decade it has been running,the MCU’s biggest hits have perhaps unsurprisingly also been the highest-grossing movie of the year for a selection of previous releases. According toThe Numbers' records, the first of these came withThe Avengersin 2012, with the Marvel team’s first ensemble release netting a healthy $1.51 billion overall worldwide - cementing the viability of the franchise, and underlining the potential of these crossover installments - no to mention garnering higher results than evenThe Dark Knight Risesthat same year.
WhileAvengers: Age Of Ultronwas beaten out at the box office in 2015 by bothStar Wars: The Force Awakens, 2016 marked the next of these achievements. This came in the form ofCaptain America: Civil War, with its own Avengers-esque crossover plot - combined with a healthy dose of drama from the team fracturing as a result of their divided perspectives on the Sokovia Accords and how to handle them - earning the third Captain America movie $1.15 billion, showing that it wasn’t only Avengers movies that could earn this esteemed place in the annals of box office history.
Given the sheer scale of 2018’sAvengers: Infinity Warand 2019’sAvengers: Endgame, it would almost be more of a surprise if either of the two colossal releases hadn’t been the overall highest-grossing movies of those respective years - thoughBlack Panther’s own over a billion dollar box office result means 2018 did have some considerable internal competition for the MCU too. However, both the third and fourth Avengers movie making over $2 billion means they were hard to beat - and hard to replicate, as only one other movie has mirrored this record since.
Spider-Man: No Way Home Marks The Last Time The MCU Managed The Impressive & Important Feat
2021’sSpider-Man: No Way Homemarked something of a resurgence for the MCU after the pandemic inherently limited box office results, with the movie’s overall worldwide box office coming in at $1.9 billion, making it the fourth most successful MCU movie of all time in this regard. While this suggested things were back on the upswing,the franchise hasn’t broken the box office record since, despite having released 7 movies after this point, which has taken the MCU from being midway through Phase 4 to midway through Phase 5 and seemingly close to the end of the Multiverse Saga itself.
This detail is arguably most surprising becauseSpider-Man: No Way Homewas not the last major financial success in terms of Marvel movies. Indeed,Deadpool & Wolverine’s box officebrought in a considerable $1.3 billion, marking it as the sixth most financially successful film in the MCU’s history, and one of the now eleven movies in the franchise to have broken the illustrious record of making over a billion dollars at the box office.
However, despite this notable position in the overarching franchise,Deadpool & Wolverinelost out on another record break due to the scale and scope of its competition, serving as a reminder that cinema’s other considerable franchises could oust MCU movies financially with their own projects. Ultimately,Inside Out 2’s $1.6 billion results mean even 2024’s MCU hit didn’t warrant another breaking of this mark for Marvel, leaving it open for the future and putting even more pressure onAvengers: DoomsdayandAvengers: Secret Wars,since the Avengers series has historically defeated this benchmark.
Why The MCU Hasn’t Broken This Record Since Spider-Man: No Way Home
The MCU’s More Recent History Suggests A Few Reasons The Record Hasn’t Been Beaten By The Franchise In Some Years
The MCU has slowed down its release schedule of late. This has meantthe franchise has had fewer movies debuting in recent years, and thus had fewer opportunities to potentially break this record once againfollowingSpider-Man: No Way Home- suggesting this may to some degree simply be reflective of the slower approach being taken to paving a path forward.
It also appears that a movie of this caliber tends to need to be an event movie of some sort, with a unique pull that drives audiences to watch it en masse and be part of the overall experience, rather than wait for its streaming release. This would explain whyDeadpool & Wolverinecame close to being the next MCU movie to hit this mark, and why others haven’t come as close, since their intention wasn’t to be a cameo-filled story drawing on prior Marvel stars who’d been off-screen for years, but rather to continue the Multiverse Saga’s overarching narrative.
While it’s worth considering whether the more mixed reception to the MCU followingAvengers: Endgamefactors in here - as the prospective higher volatility in reception to MCU installments sets up a more chaotic playing ground than perhaps could be observed before - but this clearly isn’t the main deciding element even if it does affect things, asSpider-Man: No Way Home’s own success can attest to. All in all, the past few years have ostensibly been more of an experimental time than before, which could well itself be building to the next time theMCUbreaks this record.
Marvel Cinematic Universe
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a multimedia superhero franchise that began in 2008 with Paramount’s Iron Man starring Robert Downey Jr. The franchise quickly grew in popularity, with Disney eventually buying out Marvel Entertainment in 2009. The MCU consists of dozens of movies and TV shows, most notably Avengers: Endgame, WandaVision, and Loki.
