Which is the most financially successful phase of the MCU?

We all know the Marvel Cinematic Universe is extremely popular, right? Ever since Iron Man made its debut in 2008, the MCU has built itself up into this ever-expanding behemoth, comprised of movies, television shows, comics, and merchandise (as well as everything in between), and it has been hugely successful in the process.

But strip back most of this and at the heart of the MCU is a collection of films which are divided up into distinct ‘phases’. These phases collect together multiple movies, and often build up to an event-level picture by the end.

To date, Marvel has delivered four complete phases, with others to follow. The first phase began in 2008 with Iron Man, and concluded in 2012 with The Avengers.

As a quick reminder, here is a list of all the movies that appear within the first four phases of the MCU.

Phase One (2008 – 2012)

• Iron Man (2008)
• The Incredible Hulk (2008)
• Iron Man 2 (2010)
• Thor (2011)
• Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
• The Avengers (2012)

Phase Two (2013 – 2015)

• Iron Man 3 (2013)
• Thor: The Dark World (2013)
• Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
• Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
• Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
• Ant-Man (2015)

Phase Three (2016 – 2019)

• Captain America: Civil War (2016)
• Doctor Strange (2016)
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
• Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
• Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
• Black Panther (2018)
• Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
• Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
• Captain Marvel (2019)
• Avengers: Endgame (2019)
• Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)

Phase Four (2021 – 2022)

• Black Widow (2021)
• Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)
• Eternals (2021)
• Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
• Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)
• Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)
• Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)

As you can see from the list above, each phase includes a different amount of movies. The number of movies depends on the stories that Marvel Studios wishes to tell, often as it leads up to something big.

The sheer number of movies within each phase demonstrates just how popular the MCU is, but how financially successful is each phase? Has each phase perfomed as well as its peers, or has one taken more money than the others?

Today I am taking a look at the finances of the MCU, with a specific focus on each phase. Taking each phase, and each film one-by-one, I will highlight which has perfomed the best at the box office.

As I am looking at box office performance only, I will not be including any details about television shows which pop up in each phase. The results are purely based on how well the movies did at the cinema, and nothing more.

Oh, and for the record, the lists are for movies produced or co-produced by Marvel Studios only, so do not include the Marvel Television-produced pilot episode of The Inhumans, which got a brief theatrical release.

Phase One (2008 – 2012)

First up is Phase One, which comprises six movies. Here is a list of each film, alongside their corresponding box office totals.

• Iron Man (2008) – $585,796,247
• The Incredible Hulk (2008) – $264,770,996
• Iron Man 2 (2010) – $623,933,331
• Thor (2011) – $449,326,618
• Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) – $370,569,774
• The Avengers (2012) – $1,520,538,536

The combined total of all six movies in Phase One: $3,814,935,502

Phase Two (2013 – 2015)

Next up is Phase Two, which comprises six movies. Here is a list of each film, as well as the corresponding box office totals.

• Iron Man 3 (2013) – $1,215,577,205
• Thor: The Dark World (2013) – $644,783,140
• Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) – $714,421,503
• Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) – $773,350,147
• Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) – $1,405,018,048
• Ant-Man (2015) – $519,311,965

The combined total of all six movies in Phase Two: $5,272,462,008

Phase Three (2016 – 2019)

Phase three is next, which comprises 11 movies. Once again, here is a list of each film, as well as the corresponding box office totals.

• Captain America: Civil War (2016) – $1,155,046,416
• Doctor Strange (2016) – $677,796,076
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) – $863,756,051
• Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) – $880,166,924
• Thor: Ragnarok (2017) – $855,301,806
• Black Panther (2018) – $1,349,926,083
• Avengers: Infinity War (2018) – $2,052,415,039
• Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) – $622,674,139
• Captain Marvel (2019) – $1,131,416,446
• Avengers: Endgame (2019) – $2,799,439,100
• Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) – $1,131,927,996

The combined total of all 11 movies in Phase Three: $13,519,866,076

Phase Four (2021 – 2022)

And finally, Phase Four, which comprises seven movies. Here is a list of each film, as well as the box office results.

• Black Widow (2021) – $379,751,655
• Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) – $432,243,292
• Eternals (2021) – $402,064,899
• Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) $1,921,847,111
• Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) – $955,775,804
• Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) – $760,928,081
• Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) – $859,208,836

The combined total of all seven movies in Phase Four: $5,711,819,678

Here are all those totals again in order of their box office success:

• Phase Three: $13,519,866,076 (11 movies)
• Phase Four: $5,711,819,678 (seven movies)
• Phase Two: $5,272,462,008 (six movies)
• Phase One: $3,814,935,502 (six movies)

As you can see, to date, Phase Three performed the best at the box office. However, it does have the most amount of movies, which means it should have taken the most amount of money.

Phase Four then appears next on the list, followed by Phase Two. Phase One is at the bottom of the list.

As you can see from the list above, the totals between Phase Two and Phase Four are quite similar, yet Phase Four does have an additional film. So, is Phase Four really more successful than Phase Two?

Well, let’s divide the totals by the number of movies in each phase, to create an average total per film. And then once again, I’ll put them in order.

• Phase Three: 11 movies = An average of $1,229,078,734.18 per movie
• Phase Two: Six movies = An average of $878,743,668 per movie
• Phase Four: Seven movies = An average of $815,974,239.714 per movie
• Phase One: Six movies = An average of $635,822,583.667 per movie

As you can see, based on the number of movies, Phase Two actually performed better overall than Phase Four. This doesn’t change the positioning of the top spot though, as Phase Three is still the most financially successful overall.

Is anyone surprised by the results? I’d say it’s doubtful, as most MCU fans will know Phase Three was peak performance for Marvel Studios.

Phase Three contains some big movies, including two Avengers films, as well as very successful Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, and Black Panther films. All of these movies crossed over the $1 billion mark with ease, so this phase was always likely to come out on top.

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