Marvel, the comic book company, was founded in 1939. Since then, it has created some of the best-known comic heroes in history. These characters have a worldwide audience, both because of the original comic books and movies made about them later. Captain America was one of the early successes of Marvel. The character was introduced in 1941, just as the United States entered World War II. He became the perfect symbol of the country as it fought fascism in Europe and the Pacific.
One of the first places some Marvel characters appeared outside comic books was on TV. There were series about the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man in the 1960s, but they were animated. Batman, Superman and the others did not take off on the screen until they became the subjects of movies.
24/7 Tempo has compiled a list of the Marvel movies that did best at the box office, and the numbers are staggering. From this list, we picked the most successful. Some of these movies made more money than the gross domestic products of some countries, with nine of the movies bringing in more than a billion dollars.
The list of finalists is dominated by Avengers movies, which feature such popular characters as Captain America, Hulk, Iron Man and Thor, holding the top four places on this list. This series began with “The Avengers” in 2012 and has gone from strength to strength. “Avengers: Infinity War,” released in 2018, grossed $2.0 billion. “Avengers: Endgame,” released in 2019, topped that with $2.8 billion, becoming the second highest-grossing movie of all time after “Avatar.”
To determine which Marvel movie did best at the box office, 24/7 Tempo reviewed data for films produced by Marvel Studios from The Numbers, an online movie database owned by consulting firm Nash Information Services. Movies were ranked based on the total worldwide box office as of June 2021. In addition to box office data, information on production budget, distributor and cast also came from The Numbers.
Among these films, the highest grossing is “Avengers: Endgame.” Here are the details:
- Worldwide box office: $2.8 billion (second most out of all movies)
- Domestic box office: $858.4 million (second most out of all movies)
- Production budget: $400 million (the most out of all movies)
- Distributor: Walt Disney
- Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth
This is the 22nd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it serves as a conclusion to the story up to that point, ending the arcs for several characters. The surviving members of the Avengers and their allies attempt to reverse the destruction caused by Thanos, the villain in “Infinity War,” the prior film.
Click here to read about all the highest-grossing movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
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