The Power of Marvel Studios
In 2008, Marvel Studios changed the movie industry forever when they released their first produced superhero film “Iron Man,” thus setting the powerhouse the studio would turn out to be. In the 11 years that followed and almost 22 films later, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or the MCU, has become an ever expanding franchise that everyone and their mothers have fallen in love with. With extreme popularity comes some big numbers when you look at the box office figures for here in the United States.
As you can see in the chart above, in its opening weekend “Iron Man” brought in a whooping $98,618,668 and would go to gross $318,412,101 throughout its theatrical run, this set the bar obviously high for the studio in its earliest days. As well as doing very well at the box office, “Iron Man” was received incredibly well by critics earning a 93% on the review-aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes with many citing it as one of the best superhero movies in recent years. As fans would find out, not everything from the studio would be magic right away. About a month later, “The Incredible Hulk” was released and didn’t do nearly the numbers that “Iron Man” had done. In its opening weekend it made $55,414,050 and ultimately grossed $134,806,913 by the time it had left theaters. To this day, it is still one of the lowest received movies in the MCU with a 67% on Rotten Tomatoes. This is the first major instance from this collection of data that makes it evident that a poorly received critical film did worse at the box office. Marvel Studios rounded up its first phase of movies with the climatic “The Avengers” that saw all of our favorite heroes team up on the big screen. In its opening weekend it brought in a massive $207,438,708 at the box office and would go on to gross $623,357,910 here in the States, with a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes. This was a new all time high for Marvel Studios, and really implements the theory that a film does better at the box office when it is better received by the critics.
From the data above, you can see there is a bit of a pattern, all the Marvel movies, besides Captain America The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy, that have a 90% or higher on Rotten Tomatoes earned over $100,000,000 in its opening weekend. Marvel Studios would continue to be a powerhouse in the years following and have 5 movies in a row earn over $100,000,000 in its opening weekend; Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Spider Man Homecoming, Thor Ragnarok, Black Panther, and Avengers Infinity War. Now, you might be wonder, how does Marvel do this and why is it important? Well, the only evident answer is that people love superheroes these days. Audiences look to them for empowerment and escapism from the world and superheroes are something that everyone can admire. It’s also important because Marvel Studios has become one of the biggest movie franchises ever, rivaling the likes of Harry Potter and Star Wars, and other well known franchises. It has been in motion for 11 years now and it is still gaining momentum and it is honestly a spectacle to watch and see what records it will break next. Next month, Marvel will be releasing their enormous conclusion to their first 22 films with “Avengers Endgame,” and one can only imagine the numbers that will bring in…
