MCU: Was Marvel Phase 4 The Highest Grossing At The Box Office?

It is no secret to anyone that the end of Phase 3 of Marvel left a great void in the hearts of fans. The sacrifices of Iron Man and Black Widow and Captain America's stepping aside capped off a marvelous stage for the Avengers, who are now undergoing a sort of shake-up. Hence, the recently completed Phase 4 only focused on introducing new superheroes and the multiverse.

In 2021, he began this new journey that decided to pay a kind of tribute to Natasha Romanoff, one of the first members of the Avengers who did not yet have an individual film. "Black Widow" grossed a total of $379,751,655 at the worldwide box office, the third lowest in the entire MCU. Here, the highlight of the plot was the appearance of Yelena Belova, Natasha's younger sister who will have a greater role in future productions.

Immediately afterward, "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" and the "Eternals" debuted in the MCU with interesting stories. The first brought part of Chinese culture to the big screen with the best fight sequences in all of Marvel, while the second featured a series of immortal aliens created by the Celestials. However, the box office reception for both films was not as high as expected, grossing $432,243,292 and $402,064,899 respectively.

Then the highest peak came with the introduction of the multiverse, something highly anticipated by fans. "Spider-Man: No Way Home" brought back the Spider-Mans of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, as well as the iconic villains played by Willem Dafoe and Alfred Molina. In the end, the $1,916,306,995 at the box office made this film the highest grossing of Phase 4 and the third highest grossing in the entire MCU.

In turn, "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" did very well at the box office (a total of $955,775,804), although the only detail that the critics placed it below his first film. Something similar happened with "Thor: Love and Thunder", which after grossing $760,928,081 at the worldwide box office could not surpass the figures of its previous installment, nor in the critics of experts and fans.

Finally, "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever", which is still in theaters and has grossed $771,064,561 as of the date of this article, closes a Phase 4 that many describe as the most depressing and boring of all. And it is that the reason is due to the departure of two fundamental superheroes, in addition to other details such as excessive absurd humor, political speeches, and gender controversies. These seven films have generated a total of $5,618,135,287 at the worldwide box office. Are figures better or worse than the previous phases?

Phase 1, Short Solid Steps

Between 2008 and 2012, the first six UCM films were developed, which served as a gateway to the origins of the central characters of the Avengers project. As you will all remember, much of this phase focused on the Tesseract, an alien artifact that would later become one of the six Infinity Stones. Here the presence of Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Hawkeye, and Black Widow stands out.

Regarding the worldwide box office, Phase 1 generated a total of $3,813,212,481 among all its productions. This figure was mostly due to what was obtained by "Avengers" ($ 1,518,815,515) since the film brought together all the superheroes in the same adventure. The remaining productions left average figures: "Iron Man 2" ($623,933,331), "Iron Man" ($585,796,247), "Thor" ($449,326,618), "Captain America" ($370,569,774), and "The Incredible Hulk" ( $264,770,996).

Also read: What are and where to see the most nominated films and series of the 2023 Golden Globes?

Phase 2, The Turning Point

In this phase (between 2013 and 2015) the consequences are shown with the attempted alien invasion initiated by Loki, in addition to the collapse of the SHIELD agency due to the terrorist organization HYDRA. To all this is added the inclusion of new characters: Wanda Maximoff, Vision, Ant-Man, and the Guardians of the Galaxy. Here, the main villain to defeat is an artificial intelligence named Ultron.

The numbers in terms of the worldwide box office improved remarkably, as they racked up $5,269,483,870 between the six films. Only "Avengers: Age of Ultron" ($1,402,805,863) and "Iron Man 3" ($1,214,811,252) surpassed $1 trillion. The others surpassed – for the most part – the titles of Phase 1: "Guardians of the Galaxy" ($773,350,147), "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" ($714,421,503), "Thor: A Dark World" ($ 644,783,140), and "Ant-Man" ($519,311,965).

Phase 3, The Hard Rod To Overcome

Success after success. This is how Phase 3 of Marvel could be described, which took place between 2016 and 2019 and left great moments in the history of cinema. Here we saw the division of the Avengers after some disagreements, more details about the Infinity Stones, the arrival of superheroes like Captain Marvel, Doctor Strange, and Black Panther, as well as the confrontation with one of the most powerful villains in the universe like Thanos.

Unlike the previous phases, this one was characterized by having more productions (11 in total) and, therefore, higher collections. But beyond the $13,505,232,666 at the worldwide box office, the quality of the films has vastly improved to the point of setting the bar high for the future. In the end, this generated more roots in the audience, which ended up turning the MCU into an entertainment phenomenon.

The two Avengers films, "Endgame" and "Infinity War," broke box office records with $2,797,800,564 and $2,048,359,754 respectively. For their part, "Black Panther" ($1,347,280,161), "Captain America: Civil War" ($1,153,296,293), "Spider-Man: Far From Home" ($1,131,927,996), and "Captain Marvel" ($1,128,275,263) broke the barrier of the billion While closing out the list was "Spider-Man: Homecoming" ($880,166,924), "Guardians of the Galaxy v2" ($863,756,051), "Thor: Ragnarok" ($853,977,126), "Doctor Strange" ($677,718,395), and "Ant-Man and The Wasp" ($622,674,139).