Box Office Smashes: The Marvel Cinematic Universe [Infographic]

We may not have known at the time, but the world of entertainment changed significantly on May 2, 2008 when Iron Man hit theaters. The movie, which featured one of Marvel’s mid-tier characters which they still owned the rights to, opened to rave reviews and made nearly $100 million on opening weekend en route to becoming the 2nd biggest movie of the year behind The Dark Knight. The most important thing, however, came in a scene shown after the credits (known as a stinger) in which Nick Fury approaches Tony Stark to talk about The Avengers. From that moment, the Marvel Cinematic Universe began to form.

It wasn’t so much of a bang, but a spark that led to a series of films released in Phase One of Marvel’s plan that included The Incredible Hulk, Thor, and Captain America with audiences anticipating the big payoff. In 2012, fans got their wish when The Avengers assembled on the big screen for the first time and broke all the box office records for superhero movies as well as some overall records too! Fast forward six years and the Marvel Cinematic Universe is showing no signs of slowing down. They've already released Black Panther this year, which broke a ton of box office records while becoming a cultural phenomenon. Avengers: Infinity War will be the MCU's 19th film and will put the franchise's box office earnings over $15 billion when it's all said and done. Check out the infographic below charting how each film leading up to this milestone release has performed at both the domestic and international box offices.

Click Image for Larger View

Embed This Image On Your Site:

<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.fun.com/blog/1135/Marvel-Cinematic-Box-Office-Infographic.jpg"><img title="Marvel Movie Box Office Infographic" src="https://images.fun.com/blog/1135/Marvel-Cinematic-Box-Office-Infographic.jpg" alt="Marvel Movie Box Office Infographic" border="0" /></a><br />Image Created by <a href="https://www.fun.com">Fun.com</a></p>

Marvel Box Office Smashes Transcription

Box Office Earnings

Iron Man (May 2, 2008)

• Budget: $140M
• Opening Weekend (USA): $99M
• Box Office Total: $318M
• Box Office World Total: $585M

The Incredible Hulk (June 13, 2008)

• Budget: $150M
• Opening Weekend (USA): $55M
• Box Office Total: $135M
• Box Office World Total: $263M

Iron Man 2 (May 7, 2010)

• Budget: $200M
• Opening Weekend (USA): $128M
• Box Office Total: $312M
• Box Office World Total: $624M

Thor (May 6, 2011)

• Budget: $150M
• Opening Weekend (USA): $66M
• Box Office Total: $181M
• Box Office World Total: $449M

Captain America: The First Avenger (July 22, 2011)

• Budget: $140M
• Opening Weekend (USA): $65M
• Box Office Total: $177M
• Box Office World Total: $371M

The Avengers (May 4, 2012)

• Budget: $220M
• Opening Weekend (USA): $207M
• Box Office Total: $623M
• Box Office World Total: $1519M

Iron Man 3 (May 3, 2013)

• Budget: $200M
• Opening Weekend (USA): $174M
• Box Office Total: $409M
• Box Office World Total: $1215M

Thor: The Dark World (November 8, 2013)

• Budget: $170M
• Opening Weekend (USA): $86M
• Box Office Total: $206M
• Box Office World Total: $645M

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (April 4, 2014)

• Budget: $170M
• Opening Weekend (USA): $95M
• Box Office Total: $260M
• Box Office World Total: $714M

Guardians of the Galaxy (August 1, 2014)

• Budget: $170M
• Opening Weekend (USA): $94M
• Box Office Total: $333M
• Box Office World Total: $773M

Avengers: Age of Ultron (May 1, 2015)

• Budget: $250M
• Opening Weekend (USA): $191M
• Box Office Total: $459M
• Box Office World Total: $1405M

Ant-Man (July 17, 2015)

• Budget: $130M
• Opening Weekend (USA): $57M
• Box Office Total: $180M
• Box Office World Total: $519M

Captain America: Civil War (May 6, 2016)

• Budget: $250M
• Opening Weekend (USA): $179M
• Box Office Total: $408M
• Box Office World Total: $1153M

Doctor Strange (November 4, 2016)

• Budget: $165M
• Opening Weekend (USA): $85M
• Box Office Total: $233M
• Box Office World Total: $678M

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (May 5, 2017)

• Budget: $200M
• Opening Weekend (USA): $147M
• Box Office Total: $390M
• Box Office World Total: $864M

Spider-Man: Homecoming (July 7, 2017)

• Budget: $175M
• Opening Weekend (USA): $117M
• Box Office Total: $334M
• Box Office World Total: $880M

Thor: Ragnarok (November 3, 2017)

• Budget: $180M
• Opening Weekend (USA): $123M
• Box Office Total: $315M
• Box Office World Total: $854M

Black Panther (February 16, 2018)

• Budget: $200M
• Opening Weekend (USA): $202M
• Box Office Total: $666M
• Box Office World Total: $1300M

Avengers: Infinity War (April 27, 2018)

• Budget: TBD
• Opening Weekend (USA): TBD
• Box Office Total: TBD
• Box Office World Total: TBD

Earnings Percentage by Franchise

• Hulk: $263M, 1.78%
• Ant-Man: $519M, 3.51%
• Doctor Strange: $678M, 4.58%
• Black Widow: $880M, 5.95%
• Black Panther: $1,300M, 8.78%
• Guardians of the Galaxy: $1,637M, 11.05%
• Thor: $1,948, 13.15%
• Captain America: $2,238M, 15.11%
• Iron Man: $2,424M, 16.36%
• Avengers: $2,924M, 19.74%
  • MCU Total: $14,811,733,690

Movies in the Top 20 All-Time Worldwide

• Captain America: Civil War (#16)
• Iron Man 3 (#14)
• Black Panther (#10)
• Avengers: Age of Ultron (#7)
• The Avengers (#5)

Highest Grossing Superhero Movie (Year of Release)

• Iron Man 2 (2010)
• Thor (2011)
• The Avengers (2012)
• Iron Man 3 (2013)
• Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
• Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
• Captain America: Civil War (2016)
• Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

Records and Achievements

• The Avengers
  • Highest Grossing Superhero Film All-Time (Worldwide)
  • Highest Opening Weekend for May Release
• Avengers: Age of Ultron
  • Largest Opening Weekend Market Share (84.5%)
• Doctor Strange
  • Highest Gross for Single-Character MCU Introduction
• Black Panther
  • Highest Opening Weekend for February release
  • Highest Grossing Superhero Film All-Time (USA)
  • Most Weeks #1 at the Box Office
• Avengers: Infinity War
  • Most Presale Tickets for Any Superhero Movie

*All Statistics Up-To-Date as of April 11, 2018

Sources: Box Office Mojo, The Numbers, Rotten Tomatoes

Which MCU movie is your favorite? Are you planning on re-watching all 18 movies before Avengers: Infinity War hits theaters? If so, you'd better hurry. Along with making time to watch all of the films, you have to decide which order to view them in. You could go by release order, chronological order, or even group them by superhero. We can't wait for the latest Avengers movie and are very curious as to how much money it's going to make. Considering it's already sold more pre-sale tickets than the previous seven Marvel films combined, it stands to make a fair amount. If you're as excited as we are for the movie, why not pick out a super suit to wear to the premiere or check out some other Marvel gear while hunting for infinity stones?

Infographic designed by Brady Johnson