The early years of the Marvel movie universe in Phase One were pretty hit and miss. While there were some big hits like the Iron Man movies and (obviously) The Avengersthere were also movies like The Incredible Hulk who struggled to find an audience. After the global phenomenon of The Avengers however, by 2012, the MCU had officially established itself as one of the most popular movie franchises in the world. The series had found its biggest audience to date and there was much anticipation to see the franchise continue to grow after that ensemble film grossed over $1.5 billion worldwide.
When the MCU moved to “Phase two”, the group of six films that formed the second part of Kevin Feige’s widespread superhero project quickly became clear that The Avengers was no fluke. The MCU had built up a devoted fanbase willing to show up for just about anything Marvel Studios produced, whether it was a big team-up movie or a standalone film about a more obscure character. The franchise had gained a foothold in phase one and then learned to turn around in phase two. With the courtesy of The numbershere’s how each movie in the second phase of the MCU ranks in terms of box office results:
6 Ant Man – $518,858,449
.jpeg)
The lowest-grossing film from phase two of the MCU was actually the last film to be released in the second phase. Ant mandirected by Peyton Reed, was released in July 2015 and served as a kind of epilogue for the stage after Avengers: Age of Ultron had hit theaters earlier that summer. Ant man was a film that had been in development since the early days of the MCU, with Edgar Wright initially involved to direct the film.
When the film was finally released, it opened with $57 million domestically, which was the stage’s lowest opening and second-lowest of the entire franchise, only just beating The Incredible Hulk‘s $55 million debut. It grossed $180 million in North America and grossed $518 million worldwide. With a $130 million budget, that’s not too shabby. Compared to the rest of phase two, that number is noticeably smaller, but it’s still higher than the first Captain America And Thor films from Phase One, which grossed $370 million and $449 million respectively.
5 Thor: The Dark World – $644,602,516
Thor: The Dark World has a reputation for being one of the worst movies the MCU has produced in the 15 years since the franchise debuted. However, despite this reaction, the film still had a strong run at the box office. It was released in November 2013 and was the second film in phase two iron man 3 from earlier in the year. It opened atop the box office with $85 million in loot, and it would stay at that top spot for a few weeks until it was dethroned by The Hunger Games: Catching fire.
In November and the holidays, The dark world built to $206 million domestically and $644 million worldwide. That made it the third-highest-grossing MCU film to date, trailing only that The Avengers And iron man 3. With the same $150 million budget as the first Thorthat was more than enough to make a profit for Disney and Marvel Studios.
4 Captain America: The Winter Soldier – $714,401,889
Only five months later The dark world was released, the MCU jumped from one of its worst entries to one of its best, like Captain America: The Winter Soldier hit theaters in April 2014. The winter Soldier was a huge improvement over the first Captain America, both from a critical and a financial perspective. With a budget of $170 million, the film opened with $95 million and grossed $259 million domestically and $714 million worldwide.
With that, The winter Soldier caught up The dark world with the third-largest gross in the franchise. The winter Soldier nearly doubling the global haul of Captain America: The First Avengerand it established Captain America as one of the strongest series within the overall MCU franchise.
3 Guardians of the Universe – $770,882,395
.jpg)
When Feige unveiled the Phase Two movie lineup at San Diego Comic-Con in 2012, there was a lot of doubt and confusion surrounding the inclusion of Guardians of the Universe. Considering that the MCU had been a franchise mostly sticking to recognizable characters, the idea of moving the series to outer space to focus on a group of characters no one had heard of (including a talking tree and raccoon) was disorienting , to say the least.
Before the movie came out in August 2014, many people were predicting Guards was supposed to be the MCU’s first true flop, especially with a $170 million budget, but those naysayers were quickly proven wrong. With a likeable cast, a catchy soundtrack and the strong creative vision of James Gunn at the helm, Guards became the unexpected hit of the year. The film opened to $94 million, comparable to The winter Soldier$95 million, and it raised a total of $333 million domestically and $770 million worldwide. Except The Avengers And iron man 3, Guardians of the Universe easily surpassed any previous film in the MCU and established the Guards series as a fan favorite.
2 Iron Man 3 – $1,215,392,272
The movie that launched Phase Two as the first MCU release after that The Avengers used to be iron man 3, the cap of the trilogy that started it all. The Iron Man movies were some of the biggest hits of the late 2000s, and iron man 3 built on both that and the immense success of The Avengers also. With a budget of $200 million, iron man 3 kicked off the summer of 2013 with a $174 million domestic opening. It eventually grossed $408 million in North America and a total of $1.2 billion worldwide.
That made at the time iron man 3 the fifth highest-grossing film of all time. It was the highest-grossing film of the year domestically, while placing second worldwide behind Disneys Frozen. Any way you look at it, iron man 3 was a huge feather in Marvel Studios’ cap and in Feige’s ball cap. The MCU had just produced back-to-back movies that grossed two billion dollars, which is a rare feat even by today’s standards.
1 Avengers: Age of Ultron – $1,395,316,979
Given the huge success of The Avengers in 2012 and the financial strength of the standalone films that followed it was impossible Avengers: Age of Ultron wouldn’t be another MCU juggernaut. As expected, the film debuted in huge numbers as it took in $191 million in its opening weekend alone.
Although the critical response to the film was not as strong as for the first one Avengersthe sequelstill managed to gross a total of $459 million in North America and $1.39 billion worldwide. If you want to be cynical, you could say so Century of Ultron was not the success it should have been as its box office numbers are lower than the first one Avengersespecially when we factor in the insanely high budget of $365 million.
However, that cannot be denied Century of Ultron was a huge hit. It was the third-highest-grossing film of 2015 in North America, the fourth-highest-grossing film of the year worldwide, and was (at the time) the fifth-highest-grossing film of all time. Although it didn’t like the #1 and #2 spots for the year iron man 3 did, which is more a testament to the power of 2015’s box office, which was packed with leviathans like Jurassic world, Furious 7 And Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Throughout phase two, the MCU had become a well-oiled hit-making machine, and things would only continue to grow as the franchise transitioned into phase three.