Marvel film box office totals? MCU's annual gross since 2008, and why recent films like The Marvels flopped

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is struggling to say the least. After becoming a seemingly unstoppable force in 2019 with Avengers: Endgame, the mighty studio has fallen far and fast.

As the studio grapples with a succession of box office flops, a new challenge awaits with the dismissal of its latest star, Jonathan Majors, who was this week found guilty of assaulting his former girlfriend Grace Jabbari. With the actor, who was set to reprise his role as Kang the Conqueror in upcoming blockbuster Avengers: The Kang Dynasty (now given the placeholder name of Avengers 5) out of the MCU, the studio needs to either recast the role or change tact completely for its next slate of films.

But the rot started before Majors' arrest back in March of this year, in fact, the MCU has been on a downward spiral since Endgame. With film releases rising exponentially, the box office totals are not bearing out the popularity that the superhero behemoth once had.

How much have the Marvel movies made at the box office?

The above graph shows the rise and rapid fall of the MCU's success at the box office. Discounting 2009 and 2020, years in which no MCU films were released, you can see a general increase in box office takings from 2008, the year the MCU began with Iron Man, up until 2016.

From here, the Marvel box office goes into overdrive, rising from $1.8 billion in 2016 to $2.5 billion a year later, then up to $4 billion in 2018, and a staggering $5.5 billion in 2019, the height of Marvel's success. This was the year of Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame, and Spider-Man: Far From Home.

In 2020 there is a complete collapse owing to the Covid pandemic which saw a pause in cinematic releases for Marvel as well as most film studios worldwide. But Marvel has not recovered post-pandemic, with no year bringing higher box office totals than 2018, despite three or four releases per year. In fact, the box office total has fallen each year since, more than halving from $3.1 billion to $1.5 billion this year. The Marvels became the MCU's biggest flop to date, making just $199 million at the global box office.

What has led to the "rot" within the MCU?

Benjii Jackson - Digital Journalist

Honestly? Too much of a good thing - if you were given cake every day, even if you like cake, you’d get sick of it. Even though it’s cake. I think the issue with why there is a rot is what was once this big-budget approach of taking a host of movie characters, giving them their own stories and bringing them all together for a super battle was just a pretty novel idea at the time. I remember going ape-spit when the cast of the first “The Avengers” movie came out at Comic-Con and thought to myself this was going to be very special.

It was - and with the characters that came together, we had an instant affinity to Tony Stark, Steve Rodgers and Thor, thanks to their separate endeavours. We also clung to our seats as the “Infinity Saga” continued throughout until we reached the final chapter, the death of Iron Man and Captain America returning back in time to be with the person he loved. Death, it would seem, made us keep coming back to the MCU as we wondered what the dates of the original Avengers would be. There doesn’t seem to be that same allure anymore, as Steven has quite rightly mentioned in conversation - how can we grow attached and develop somewhat of an emotional connection when we know there are “variants” out there, or that perhaps the people we loved were just Skrulls pretending to be Earth’s mightiest superheroes - if “Secret Invasion” is anything to go by.

But ultimately, there is a lot of MCU to consume and even if you have a cursory knowledge of the multiverse from the comic books, it is a lot to juggle. That’s not a dig at the attention span of your average movie fan - I struggle to come to grips with what is going on in these current phases. It was a simpler time in the first phases - there are these gems with powers, and a galactic overlord wants them to save life across the galaxy as a whole despite Earth losing several people (the “snap”) and our hero that kicked off the entire MCU died while saving the planet.

Now, especially with changes to the MCU to occur following the guilty verdict that Jonathan Majors, who was set to play a pivotal role as the “big bad” of the next series of MCU films, it’s just become messy. The wheels felt like they were coming off with each new franchise emanating from the MCU and, aside from perhaps “Loki” Season 2, they’ve well and truly fallen off.