The resounding financial success ofBlack Pantherhas helped push theMarvel Cinematic Universepast the $14 billion mark at the global box office. The MCU has been churning out steady hits for just shy of a decade, with even their biggest failure (The Incredible Hulk) still finding at least modest success when it was released. But especially in recent years, Marvel Studios has become an absolute record-breaking, hit-making machine. Given their recent track record, it’s probably better to look at this as the first $14 billion in a series of who knows how many billions over the coming years.
Black Panther, when all’s said and done, couldpush the MCUcloser to the $15 billion mark, given how well it’s doing. Currently, the movie is sitting at $505.8 million at the box office after just one week. It’s expected to add to that total significantly this upcoming weekend and still has a ton of international markets to roll out in, where it’s also expected to do massive business. Currently, as hard as it may be to believe,Black Pantheris actually outpacingThe Avengers. Whether or not it can keep that up remains to be seen, but it bodes well for T’Challa’s future as one of themajor bread winners for Marvel Studios.
As it stands,The Avengersremains the MCU’s highest-grossing movie worldwide and domestically, with a grand total of $1.51 billion.Avengers: Age of Ultronis in the number two spot with $1.4 billion, trailed byIron Man 3at $1.21 billion. Rounding out the top five areCaptain America: Civil War, which served asBlack Panther’s intro into the MCU, with $1.15 billion andSpider-Man: Homecoming, which snuck into the top five with $880 million. However,Black Pantheris on pace to bestHomecoming’s total and will likely creep its way into the top five by the time its run wraps up.
Outside ofBlack Panther, Marvel also hasAvengers: Infinity Wararriving in theaters on May 4. That movie is poised to break records all over the world, as it will serve as the culmination of an entire decade of MCU movies. Bringing Thanos properly into the mix will surely helpInfinity Warbecome anothermassive hitfor Marvel. There’s alsoAnt-Man and the Wasp, which is something of a mystery, in terms of how it will perform. It’s a safe guess that it won’t match the grosses of bothBlack PantherandAvengers: Infinity War, but it was never really expected to.
Ant-Manwas released in 2015 and served as something of apleasant surprisefor many. Though, it’s one of the lowest-grossing MCU movies to date, earning $519.3 million during its entire run.Black Pantherwill likely have passed that by the time I finish writing this sentence. That said,Ant-Man and the Waspshould manage to best that total, but by just how much will largely depend on reviews. In any event, the MCU continues to be far and away the most bankable thing in Hollywood these days. These numbers were provided byBox Office Mojo.
