What marvel movie made the most money

BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 09: Scarlett Johansson attends the 2020 Vanity Fair Oscar ... [+] Party at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on February 09, 2020 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Toni Anne Barson/WireImage)

In one week’s time, Black Widow was supposed to kick off Marvel’s low-key year in theaters. With The Eternals originally scheduled for Nov. 6, 2020 (that release date was moved to February 2021), Black Widow would have represented the year’s lone appearance of an Avenger from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

But, obviously, things have changed. Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, the new release date is Nov. 6, 2020—and that’s only if society is back to normal by then and movie theaters open once again. And even if that’s the case seven months from now, who knows if theaters will even be running at full capacity.

Which can only leave us to speculate: how would Black Widow have faired at the box office in a non-coronavirus world? And how would that total have compared to the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

Luckily, we don’t have to just throw out a random number—we can examine past Marvel films and survey expert predictions in order to make an educated guess. When we do that, we can create a better idea of how Black Widow would have fit into the MCU’s legendary box office run.

For starters, let’s get a broad overview of Marvel at the box office.

Of course Marvel movies have existed for years—dating all the way back to Howard the Duck in 1986. But for this article we’re just going to focus on the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which all began with Iron Man in 2008. That film would open to a $98.6 million weekend on May 2, 2008, and go on to accrue $318.6 million domestically. Worldwide, the MCU’s debut film would amass $585.4 million by the end of its theater run.

Twelve years and 23 movies later, the MCU’s domestic total stands at $8.545 billion domestically and a staggering $22.588 billion worldwide. According to The Numbers, that makes the Marvel Cinematic Universe by far the most lucrative movie franchise of all time.

In terms of worldwide gross, the MCU more than doubles the next-best competitor Star Wars, which has accrued $10.324 billion since the series debuted in 1977. And even after we adjust for inflation, Marvel’s domestic total of $9.103 billion stands above the Star Wars franchise.

Projections for ‘Black Widow’

Estimates for Black Widow’s opening weekend have ranged wildly from $90 million to $130 million.

It’s easy to argue for the high end of that spectrum. After all, 12 of the MCU films have debuted to a domestic weekend over $100 million. Plus, initial reactions to Black Widow’s trailer were resoundingly positive, as that preview ranks among the top-viewed trailers of 2020.

But perhaps the biggest argument in favor of a weekend nearing $130 million has been the elongated wait time between Marvel films. Originally, Black Widow’s May 1 release date would have represented a 10-month Marvel absence. But if the movie does indeed come out in November, that means people will have waited an unusually long amount of time for an MCU film.

On top of it all, Black Widow will be a bit of a sendoff to a character who met her demise in Avengers: Endgame. That will only increase hype for the film.

Then again, plenty of signs point to Black Widow having a lackluster opening weekend. Typically, franchise films that look backwards don’t perform as well. Look no further than Captain America: The First Avenger, which to date is one of the lowest-performing MCU films. In 2011, that movie made just $176.7 million at the domestic box office—the third-worst showing of any MCU project.

But the biggest hurdle for Black Widow will be the coronavirus itself. Even if movie theaters have reopened by November 2020, there’s no telling what state society will be in by then. The box office may never be the same again, period. Which means even a $90 million projection could be too high.

With that said, for the sake of this article, we’ll choose an opening weekend number that falls evenly between those varying projections: a $110 million opening weekend. That total would have rank 12th of the 24 MCU movies.

In terms of lifetime domestic gross, Box Office Pro predicted that number would fall somewhere between $220 million and $320 million. For this article, we’ll go in between once again and use $270 million for Black Widow’s domestic income.

Finally: there are simply too many variables to predict how well Black Widow would have done overseas. So we’ll leave that film out of the global MCU rankings for now.

Domestic Revenue

Let’s kick things off by ranking each and every MCU movie’s domestic box office performance—including the projected total for Black Widow. After that, we’ll then account for ticket price inflation:

1. Avengers: Endgame ($858.4 million)
2. Black Panther ($700.1 million)
3. Avengers: Infinity War ($678.8 million)
4. The Avengers ($623.4 million)
5. Avengers: Age of Ultron ($459 million)
6. Captain Marvel ($426.8 million)
7. Iron Man 3 ($409 million)
8. Captain America: Civil War ($408.1 million)
9. Spider-Man: Far From Home ($390.5 million)
10. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 ($389.8 million)
11. Spider-Man: Homecoming ($334.2 million)
12. Guardians of the Galaxy ($333.2 million)
13. Iron Man ($318.6 million)
14. Thor: Ragnarok ($315.1 million)
15. Iron Man 2 ($312.4 million)
16. Black Widow ($270 million)
17. Captain America: The Winter Soldier ($259.8 million)
18. Doctor Strange ($232.6 million)
19. Ant-Man and the Wasp ($216.6 million)
20. Thor: The Dark World ($206.4 million)
21. Thor ($181 million)
22. Ant-Man ($180.2 million)
23. Captain America: The First Avenger ($176.7 million)
24. The Incredible Hulk ($134.8 million)

So while $270 million is quite a nice sum, that project does land Black Widow in the lower half of MCU’s box office rankings.

Domestic Revenue After Inflation

In 2008 when Iron Man dropped, the average price of a U.S. movie ticket stood at $7.18—today, it’s jumped to $9.37. So now let’s see how those domestic box office rankings shift after we account for inflation:

1. Avengers: Endgame ($892.7 million)
2. The Avengers ($733.8 million)
3. Black Panther ($728 million)
4. Avengers: Infinity War ($705.9 million)
5. Avengers: Age of Ultron ($510.2 million)
6. Iron Man 3 ($471.4 million)
7. Captain Marvel ($443.9 million)
8. Captain America: Civil War ($442.1 million)
9. Iron Man ($415.8 million)
10. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 ($407.2 million)
11. Spider-Man: Far From Home ($406.1 million)
12. Guardians of the Galaxy ($382.1 million)
13. Iron Man 2 ($371 million)
14. Spider-Man: Homecoming ($349.1 million)
15. Thor: Ragnarok ($329.1 million)
16. Captain America: The Winter Soldier ($297.9 million)
17. Black Widow ($270 million)
18. Doctor Strange ($252 million)
19. Thor: The Dark World ($237.8 million)
20. Ant-Man and the Wasp ($225.3 million)
21. Thor ($213.9 million)
22. Captain America: The First Avenger ($208.7 million)
23. Ant-Man ($200.3 million)
24. The Incredible Hulk ($175.9 million)

The movies that made the biggest jumps up the list were The Avengers (which rose from the No. 4 position to the No. 2 spot) and Iron Man (which moved from No. 13 to No. 9). While the biggest downgrades were the two Spider-Man movies (combined, those two films moved down five spots).

Black Widow’ s projected total moved down one position, falling below Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Global Rankings

Finally, let’s rank all 23 movies currently in the Marvel Cinematic Universe at the worldwide box office:

1. Avengers: Endgame ($2.792 billion)
2. Avengers: Infinity War ($2.048 billion)
3. The Avengers ($1.519 billion)
4. Avengers: Age of Ultron ($1.405 billion)
5. Black Panther ($1.347 billion)
6. Iron Man 3 ($1.215 billion)
7. Captain America: Civil War ($1.153 billion)
8. Captain Marvel ($1.128 billion)
9. Spider-Man: Far From Home ($988 million)
10. Spider-Man: Homecoming ($880.2 million)
11. Thor: Ragnarok ($854 million)
12. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 ($863.8 million)
13. Guardians of the Galaxy ($773.3 million)
14. Captain America: The Winter Soldier ($714.3 million)
15. Doctor Strange ($677.7 million)
16. Thor: The Dark World ($644.6 million)
17. Ant-Man and the Wasp ($622.7 million)
18. Iron Man 2 ($623.9 million)
19. Iron Man ($585.2 million)
20. Ant-Man ($519.3 million)
21. Thor ($449.3 million)
22. Captain America: The First Avenger ($370.6 million)

The Incredible Hulk ($263.4 million)

Sometimes, the best things in life are not planned, they just happen. Kevin Feige, the Marvel Studio Universe (MCU) President, once revealed that they never set out to build a universe. He started as a producer at Marvel Studios in 2000. In 2008, he had a great idea – to make many films, all part of one universe like comic books do. Thus, “Iron Man” debuted in 2008, and since then, MCU has released 28 films. Here are the ten highest-grossing Marvel movies of all time.

10. Captain Marvel- $1.128 Billion

According to CNBC, Marvel was modest in its expectation of how well the movie would perform in its opening weekend. The film became the first solo female lead in the MCU, and it surpassed the $125 million that Disney expected by hitting $153.4 million in its domestic opening weekend. In April 2019, the film continued to soar when it sold tickets worth $645 million overseas and $358 million in North America. By grossing over $1 billion, it became the 18th Disney film to reach this milestone.

9. Spiderman: Far from Home – $1.132 Billion

Sony teamed up with Marvel Studios to bring to life another “Spider-Man” film – “Spider-Man: Far From Home.” The collaboration yielded profits as the movie became the highest-grossing of all time for Sony at the time. Allegedly, having Feige on the team was critical to the success of the movie. However, the fortune brought a bit of an impasse between the two production houses. They disagreed over profit-sharing terms until they agreed to co-finance another Spider-Man movie at a ratio of 75:25 such that Disney would finance 25% of the film for 25% of the profits.

8. Captain America: Civil War- $1.153 Billion

“Captain America: Civil War” raked in $181.8 million in its opening weekend since its debut on April 17, 2016. The amount made the film the highest-grossing of the three “Captain America” films since “The First Avenger” grossed $65 million during the opening weekend while “The Winter Soldier” opened to $95 million. It helped make the introduction of Spider-Man to the MCU, facilitating the debut of “Spider-Man: Homecoming” in 2017. “Captain America: Civil War” reportedly had a filming budget of $250 million, excluding marketing and promotion. So, by hitting the $1 billion mark, Disney made quite a handsome profit.

7. Iron Man 3- $1.215 Billion

With a revenue of over $1.2 billion, “Iron Man 3” made history by being the second highest-grossing film of 2013. It raked in $175.3 million in its opening weekend almost covering the production budget of $200 million. The lead Robert Downey Jr. suffered an ankle injury when performing a stunt during the film’s production. Consequently, production had to stop for a while, enabling the director and writer to have more time for their creative juices to flow and make the film worth the wait.

6. Black Panther- $1.344 Billion

The late Chadwick Boseman outdid himself, starring as Black Panther in the all-black cast film. It cost only $200 million to make, but “Black Panther” ended up minting millions of dollars for MCU. It was anticipated to make about $120 million in its debut weekend, but it shattered records by selling tickets worth $242 million in the four-day weekend. Within its first three days of hitting cinemas, this film grossed $201.8 million, making it the highest-grossing film among those released in February.

5. Avengers: Age of Ultron-$1.403 Billion

According to Forbes, “Avengers: Age of Ultron” passed the $1 billion mark in its 254th day after its international debut. The domestic opening weekend revenue was $191.3 million, far below the expected range of $210 million and $230 million worldwide. Still, at the time, it became the second film in the MCU to have the largest weekend at the box office, after “The Avengers.”

4. The Avengers – $1.519 Billion

“The Avengers” surpassed $1 billion in revenue in its third week of release. According to Polygon, the success of this film set precedence for all other Marvel films, and the author explained that since 2012, any other MCU production has a touch of “The Avengers.” Some believe this film even changed Hollywood, and some screenwriters and producers opined it was the tipping point because before “The Avengers” pitching such a storyline was considered insane.

3. Spiderman: No Way Home – $1.89 Billion

Sony probably thought it had seen its best year with “Spider-Man: Far From Home” until the release of “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” It opened to $260.14 million in the domestic release, an achievement that no other film had managed to make in the 2021 theatrical runs. Some experts believed that the lack of a China release resulted in the movie not hitting the one-billion-dollar mark. China has become more selective of Western films shown in the country. “Spider-Man: No Way Home” was banned because Sony refused to remove the Statue of Liberty scenes as the Chinese government demanded.

2. Avengers: Infinity War – $2.048 Billion

When Vox published “Avengers: Infinity War” had the best opening weekend of any film of all time, the author probably knew that this movie was destined to be the second highest-grossing movie of the MCU franchise. In North America alone, it opened to over $250 million, and the total domestic box office was $ 678.8 million. The movie had already started reaping profits before going international since the production budget was $321 million.

1. Avengers: Endgame – $2.798 Billion

In 2019, “Avengers: Endgame” took the crown of the highest-grossing film ever when it raked in $2.798 billion at the box office. However, “Avatar” reclaimed the top seat when it was re-released in China, bringing its total ticket sales to $2.802 billion. There were no hard feelings as Joe and Anthony Russo, the directors of “Endgame” took to social media to congratulate James Cameron.

The Marvel characters in these films are not only legendary, but often the most powerful in all the Marvel Universe.