Time To Enter The Marvel Cinematic Universe! Only Ten Years Old And The Most Successful Movie Franchise In History!
Isn’t it amazing that the Marvel movie universe, so dominant at the box office, is only ten years old? Yet in only a decade, these films have become the most successful franchise in movie history!
In fact, the latest “Avengers” film has made more than $400-million in the US along – in 9 days! That’s the second fastest in history!
What a huge box office behemoth – and all done thanks to 19 films in a single decade!
Here is how wikipedia describes this empire:
“The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films are an American series of superhero films, based on characters that appear in publications by Marvel Comics. The films have been in production since 2007, and in that time Marvel Studios has produced 19 films, with 13 more in various stages of production. The series collectively has grossed over $15.4 billion at the global box office, making it the highest-grossing film franchise of all time.”
What I didn’t realize is that this Marvel world was put together in three phases, beginning with “Iron Man” in 2008.
Yes, forget any and all super hero films prior to the Marvel Universe coming together in 2008 – this last decade, under the direction of Kevin Feige, has completely re-branded this iconic comic book company to become a movie powerhouse worldwide.
Three Phases Of Marvel!
Here is the list of the three phases of Marvel’s world domination in movies:
1 Phase One
1.1 Iron Man (2008)
1.2 The Incredible Hulk (2008)
1.3 Iron Man 2 (2010)
1.4 Thor (2011)
1.5 Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
1.6 Marvel’s The Avengers (2012)
2 Phase Two
2.1 Iron Man 3 (2013)
2.2 Thor: The Dark World (2013)
2.3 Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
2.4 Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
2.5 Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
2.6 Ant-Man (2015)
A special mention of “Guardians Of The Galaxy” – this was Marvel’s first step away from the big, well known superheroes…they trusted independent Director James Gunn to take this lesser batch of characters and make a film – which proved to be a massive hit, and opened the door to many other smaller comics as well!
I worked with Gunn several times, and here is the story of how we met at the Cannes Film Festival:
https://johnrieber.com/2014/05/08/director-james-gunn-geek-guardian-of-the-galaxy-my-cannes-photo/
Here now is the last phase:
3 Phase Three
3.1 Captain America: Civil War (2016)
3.2 Doctor Strange (2016)
3.3 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
3.4 Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
3.5 Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
3.6 Black Panther (2018)
3.7 Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
the last three films have all been record-breakers around the world, so the future is looking brighter than ever for Marvel. As wikipedia notes:
“A sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming has been scheduled for 2019, alongside Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in 2020, with an additional two untitled films also scheduled for 2020, three untitled films scheduled for 2021, and three untitled films scheduled for 2022. Feige has indicated that Marvel may abandon the phase grouping after the conclusion of Phase Three.”
We will see where they go next, but bravo to the incredible achievement so far! Well, except for….
My Least Favourite Marvel Cinematic Universe Film!
Yes, there is one film here that I didn’t like – more for the person involved than the finished product, although there are many stories about conflict behind the scenes during filming and especially in the edit bay – because Edward Norton was the wrong choice to be Hulk, pure and simple…
Edward Norton In An Edit Bay!
There are many stories about the problems making “The Incredible Hulk”, and they all pointed a finger at Edward Norton – shown here being restrained after trying to make an edit to the film…
Marvel films have a formula – a focused story and visual design, a point-of-view and a “world” that must be respected – google this film and you will read that the shoot was contentious and Norton disagreed with the studio on many things…that’s just not what’s needed – and Mark Ruffalo has taken over the role and made it his own…
Here is a look at a great opinion battle that discusses the worst movies in Marvel’s world so far…
That said, bravo again to Marvel for creating a cinematic universe that is entertaining fans the world over!
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johnrieber 
When the fifth Harry Potter film came out it became the most sucessful film series in history overtaking Bond. Now MCU, of course they don’t have to use the same actors and can churn now 3 films in one year instead of pushing themselves hard to get one done in two years. Good for them though, something like this had never been pulled off until now.
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Great point on Potter!
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I absolutely love the MCU! I think it’s crazy just how popular they have gotten! I remember loving the first Iron Man and watching the first Avengers and just how crazy it all got
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Yes, I was hooked after Iron Man…Thor made a much-needed comeback for me with Ragnorak, and I still don’t have any interest in Captain America, but in catching up by rewatching the first two Avengers films, I think I like him in smaller doses…I saw you reviewed the latest film – I am seeing it this weekend and will then read your review! Thanks for the comment as always!
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Me too, I was so obsessed with it for so long. Just loved everything about Iron Man! Thor Ragnorak really made me feel the hype again. I did enjoy Civil War but I think the movies were feeling a little same-y for me. I really liked the Captain America films, I didn’t watch them for a long time because I was unsure. Ooooh yes, let me know what you thought when you’ve seen it! Wanted to make sure I made it clear there was spoilers in my review, would hate to ruin it for anyone! Of course, more than welcome! Enjoyed the post
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My 30-year-old Army son introduced me to this. These are so much better than lots of the fare out there on TV and/or movies.
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Yes, the overall quality of these projects has been high – fans are tougher on them than more causal fans…my wife and I caught up with the first two Avengers films in anticipation for the newest one, and they are fun to watch – they aren’t great “art” but really fun escapist entertainment for sure!
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I think this was a great post full of interesting info. I have to confess, I only care for a few of them. That matters not for millions love the galaxy.
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Thanks for the comment – it’s amazing to me that it’s the biggest movie franchise in history in ten short years
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That’s astounding to me, too. I thought the X-Men franchise had a solid foothold.
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I was in on the whole marvel hype for phase one and half of phase two, then I kind of fell off the bandwagon.. Not quite sure why, because they do produce some really good movies. I think part of it is growing up learning about the Norse gods in school, then seeing it being so americanized (if that’s even a word). The Thor movies are great action movies but they could have done so much more to make it feel more “authentic”.
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Thanks for your insight – phase two was filled with many sequels, which haven’t been as good in many cases, but new directions like “Guardians” and “Panther” offer hope!
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I think you know what I might say about comic-book franchise films, John.
So I won’t say it! 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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Pete, it’s amazing to me that they are SO successful – in the US, the latest film was on 15,000 movie screens its first weekend!!!
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It seems everyone loves them, young and old. Just not me. I preferred the comics. 🙂
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