Top 10 Highest Grossing Movies in Marvel

Highest Grossing Movies in Marvel

Marvel Studios has redefined the landscape of modern cinema with its unparalleled success in crafting a cohesive and expansive cinematic universe. With each release, audiences eagerly flock to theaters worldwide, contributing to staggering box office numbers. Here’s a breakdown of the top 10 highest-grossing movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), showcasing the unparalleled triumphs of Marvel’s superhero epics.

1 Avengers: Endgame (2019)

• Global box office: $2.8 billion
• Domestic box office: $858.4 million

Avengers: Endgame dominated the global and domestic box office—no surprise, since the film culminated in a final battle that the MCU had been working toward for 11 years. Avatar (2009) held the title of highest-grossing film worldwide until its re-release in 2022, before its sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, returned to the top. Avengers: Endgame grossed $357.1 million. Marvel didn’t live up to the level of excitement in its domestic opening weekend as fans were eager to see what happened after the events of Avengers: Infinity War.

Avengers: Endgame is the MCU’s highest-grossing film both domestically and worldwide.

2 Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

• Global box office: $2.1 billion
• Domestic box office: $678.8 million

Avengers: Infinity War was the last setup, and the top villain, Thanos, gave the Avengers the loss they needed to get their minds right for the real thing. Fans watched as Iron Man, Thor, Hulk and the other Avengers hunted down the six Infinity Stones that Thanos finally got to destroy half of the world’s population. Avengers: Infinity War has become Marvel’s second-highest-grossing film worldwide.

The film grossed $257.7 million in its domestic box office opening weekend.

3 Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

• Global box office: $1.9 billion
• Domestic box office: $814.1 million

Spider-Man: No Way Home is Marvel’s second-highest-grossing film of all time domestically, and still made history worldwide, grossing $1.9 billion, making it the highest-grossing Spider-Man film ever. Now, there have been several Spider-Man movies, and this one was so successful because it took advantage of the multiverse to bring the Spider-Man iterations of Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland under one umbrella for a short period of time. Fans never imagined seeing all three Spider-Man franchises in one movie, but Marvel did just that.

Spider-Man: No Way Home generated $260.1 million in its domestic box office opening.

4 The Avengers (2012)

• Global box office: $1.5 billion
• Domestic box office: $623.4 million

The Avengers truly took superhero cinema to a new level as it brought Iron Man, Thor, Black Widow, Captain America, Hulk and Hawkeye under one umbrella to face Thor’s evil brother (at the time), Loki and the Chitauri. Up until this point, MCU fans have only seen most of these characters fight in small groups or in their respective solo films. While more superheroes joined the pack by the final Avengers film, these core six remained the original group.

The Avengers grossed $1.5 billion worldwide, of which $207.4 million came from its domestic box office opening.

5 Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

• Global box office: $1.4 billion
• Domestic box office: $459.01 million

All four Avengers films made this list, but it’s impressive to see them all rank in the top five based on global box office numbers. Avengers: Age of Ultron may be the lowest-ranked Avengers film of the bunch, but it still generated $1.4 billion from the global box office, $191.3 million of which came from its domestic box office opening weekend. Following the events of the first Avengers film, the pack gets back together to battle Ultron, an artificial intelligence-powered robotic supervillain that was originally created by Iron Man and the Hulk as part of a peacekeeping program.

6 Black Panther (2018)

• Global box office: $1.3 billion
• Domestic box office: $700.1 million

Black Panther outgrossed three Avengers movies domestically — a franchise that had long been the favorites in the MCU until the late Chadwick Boseman came into his iconic role as T’Challa. Black Panther made its mark worldwide as well, and much of its success is likely due to the film being the first Marvel production with a predominately Black cast. Angela Bassett, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Letitia Wright, and Danai Gurira were some of the other renowned actors and actresses who helped make the memorable film.

Black Panther generated $202 million in its domestic box office opening weekend.

7 Iron Man 3 (2013)

• Global box office: $1.2 billion
• Domestic box office: $409.01 million

Iron Man 3 marked the third and final Installment in the Iron Man trilogy, where Tony Stark battled anxiety and PTSD from the events of The Avengers. He builds multiple Iron Man suits to fight his personal troubles, which causes friction with his girlfriend, Pepper. Iron Man 3 was praised for its action sequences as Iron Man fights his personal battles and evil ones led by the film’s antagonist, the Mandarin. Iron Man 3 brought in $174.1 million in its domestic opening weekend, nearly half of what it brought in nationally.

8 Captain America: Civil War (2016)

• Global box office: $1.2 billion
• Domestic box office: $408.1 million

Captain America: Civil War posed an interesting plot that started with a disagreement over how the Avengers should be managed on a political level, which broke the band into two factions led by Steve Rogers and Tony Stark, more affectionately known as Captain America and Iron Man. Captain America: Civil War was the highest-grossing film of 2016, with other classics like Rogue One, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and Suicide Squad ranking underneath it. Luckily, the Avengers become one team again by the conclusion of the film, just in time for Doctor Strange’s entrance into the MCU.

Captain America: Civil War brought in $179.1 million on its domestic box office opening weekend.

9 Captain Marvel (2019)

• Global box office: $1.1 billion
• Domestic box office: $426.8 million

Captain Marvel hit Theater following the events of Avengers: Infinity War and right before Avengers: Endgame. While it was a good origin story for Carol Danvers as Captain Marvel, the movie’s high performance at the box office probably came as fans were hyped up for Avengers: Endgame, which came out a month after Captain Marvel. The film was iconic in its own right because it was the first woman-led Marvel movie. Captain Marvel brought in $153.4 million in its domestic opening weekend.

10 Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)

• Global box office: $1.1 billion
• Domestic box office: $390.5 million

Spider-Man: Far From Home released in July 2019 at the height of Marvel’s cinematic dominance, following that March’s release of Captain Marvel and May’s Avengers: Endgame. It’s the sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), and for a big portion of the film, we see Tom Holland’s Peter Parker mourning the events of Avengers: Endgame. That soon changes when Peter Parker has to get back to his Spider-Man duties to battle supervillain Mysterio.

Spider-Man: Far From Home brought in $92.6 million on its domestic box office opening weekend.