by Ray Keating
The Keating Files – April 28, 2020
(I originally published this piece at my DisneyBizJournal.com site, but thought it would be worth posting at the Keating Files as well. It’s hopefully a fun read!)
Today, April 28, is “National Superhero Day.” And on this date, it seems fitting to get into one of those arguments many of us engaged in as kids. You know, who is the best superhero? This superhero could beat up this other superhero. Oh, yeah? And so on.
Except we’re going to narrow our fighting words, so to speak, to how powerful the various Marvel Cinematic Universe’s superheroes have been at the box office. Where do Disney’s MCU movies rank in terms of the amount of revenue raked in at the box office?
The answer can be found in the following table, which ranks each of the 23 Marvel movies (so far) according to the estimated worldwide box office numbers in 2019 inflation-adjusted U.S. dollars.
Rank –
Real Box Office
|
Release Date
|
MCU Film
|
Worldwide Box Office –
Estimated in Real
2019 US Dollars
|
1
|
4/26/19
|
Avengers: Endgame
|
$2,797,800,564
|
2
|
4/27/18
|
Avengers: Infinity War
|
$2,085,474,952
|
3
|
5/4/12
|
The Avengers
|
$1,691,224,912
|
4
|
5/1/15
|
Avengers: Age of Ultron
|
$1,513,352,493
|
5
|
2/16/18
|
Black Panther
|
$1,371,318,517
|
6
|
5/3/13
|
Iron Man 3
|
$1,333,823,823
|
7
|
5/6/16
|
Captain America: Civil War
|
$1,228,486,127
|
8
|
3/8/19
|
Captain Marvel
|
$1,129,729,839
|
9
|
7/2/19
|
Spider-Man: Far From Home
|
$1,129,210,469
|
10
|
7/7/17
|
Spider-Man: Homecoming
|
$918,001,794
|
11
|
5/5/17
|
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2
|
$906,473,402
|
12
|
11/3/17
|
Thor: Ragnarok
|
$890,667,135
|
13
|
8/1/14
|
Guardians of the Galaxy
|
$834,535,230
|
14
|
4/4/14
|
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
|
$771,499,819
|
15
|
5/7/10
|
Iron Man 2
|
$728,266,984
|
16
|
11/4/16
|
Doctor Strange
|
$720,510,624
|
17
|
11/8/13
|
Thor: The Dark World
|
$707,414,562
|
18
|
5/2/08
|
Iron Man
|
$694,849,347
|
19
|
7/6/18
|
Ant-Man and the Wasp
|
$634,435,712
|
20
|
7/17/15
|
Ant-Man
|
$559,663,516
|
21
|
5/6/11
|
Thor
|
$510,687,219
|
22
|
6/22/11
|
Captain America: The First Avenger
|
$421,175,245
|
23
|
6/13/08
|
The Incredible Hulk
|
$315,349,958
|
Source: Data from the-numbers.com. Calculations by author.
I guess no one should be surprised by the fact that The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes have proven to be mightiest at the box office.
Of course, what a ranking like this leads to is the inevitable “Yeah, but...” debate. In particular, yeah, but this doesn’t mean that this ranking necessarily reflects a ranking of the best MCU films. Let that debate begin! I’ll start by noting that I think that the top five MCU movies (not necessarily in order) are: Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: The First Avenger, Avengers: Endgame, Avengers: Infinity War, and Guardians of the Galaxy.
And thankfully, there are more Marvel movies on the way to add to the incredible box office tally – in 2019 dollars, the MCU films have earned a total of $23.9 billion, so far – and to spice up the debate about which are the best and worst movies in the series.
And if you’re looking ahead, here’s the latest announced Marvel universe movies with scheduled release dates (according to Disney and various media reports):
Black Widow – November 6, 2020
The Eternals – February 12, 2021
Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings – May 7, 2021
Spider-Man 3 – November 5, 2021
Thor: Love and Thunder – February 11, 2022
Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness – March 25, 2022
Black Panther II – May 6, 2022
Captain Marvel 2 – June 8, 2022
Ant-Man 3 – no date announced
Guardians of the Galaxy 3 – no date announced
Enjoy, and happy National Superhero Day!
__________
