A $1.5 billion MCU hit proves exactly what Avengers: Doomsday should try to achieve. The story of Avengers: Doomsday is undoubtedly Marvel’s most important in years. The film is bringing the тιтular team back to the MCU for the first time since 2019, all while serving as the beginning of the end of the Multiverse Saga.

The cast list of Avengers: Doomsday has proven just how big the film will be by combining the Avengers, the New Avengers, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four. This is without mentioning the villain of the upcoming Marvel movie, with Robert Downey Jr. returning to the MCU as Doctor Doom. All of these elements prove how big Avengers: Doomsday will be.

That said, it should not fall victim to the pressure placed on it.

Many will expect Avengers: Doomsday to be one of the best-ranked movies in the MCU, but there is an argument that it should not actively aim to achieve this. Rather than try and replicate the success of some of the MCU’s most consequential movies, another $1.5 billion Marvel hit should be the framework.

Avengers: Doomsday Is Facing Pressure To Be Like Avengers: Infinity War

One of the consequential MCU movies that Avengers: Doomsday is facing some pressure to be like is Avengers: Infinity War. There are several reasons for this, a lot of which make perfect sense. For instance, the Russo Brothers are returning for Avengers: Doomsday. The Russos have directed some of the MCU’s best movies, including Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.

With Avengers: Doomsday being their first MCU project since 2019, many are expecting a return to what made the likes of Avengers: Infinity War so great. Moreover, Avengers: Doomsday has a mᴀssive cast that brings together several disparate teams from the MCU. Infinity War did this with the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and the Wakandans, drawing another similarity.

Avengers: Doomsday, as already alluded to, is also the beginning of the end of the Multiverse Saga. It will have a tie-in sequel, the story of Avengers: Secret Wars, just as Avengers: Infinity War did with Avengers: Endgame. All of these reasons have led many to think of the film as Infinity War 2.0, but this may be a mistake.

Avengers: Doomsday Needs To Be More Like 2012’s The Avengers Than Anything Else

From a pure story perspective, Avengers: Doomsday should aim to be more like 2012’s The Avengers than Avengers: Infinity War. The latter film was a success because of how well it capitalized on over a decade of build-up. Infinity War had the trilogies of Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor as set up, as well as two Guardians movies and two Avengers stories.

This is without mentioning the likes of Black Panther, Spider-Man, the two Ant-Man movies, or Doctor Strange, with each of these characters appearing in one or more team-up projects before Avengers: Infinity War. This intense build-up over 10 years is what allowed Avengers: Infinity War to be so effective. Avengers: Doomsday does not have this.

The main villain of Doomsday was only just introduced in the post-credits scene of The Fantastic Four: First Steps, after all, with several of its characters having less build-up than those in Infinity War had. Some heroes, like the X-Men, Thor, Ant-Man, or Shuri, for instance, have some lengthy backstory, but the character dynamics are less fleshed-out than those in Infinity War.

Infinity War banked on dynamics like the Guardians mostly sticking together, Spider-Man and Iron Man teaming up, and Captain America and the other Avengers to allow closer links between characters to be formed. Avengers: Doomsday will likely struggle to emulate this, with many characters not being linked strongly in the MCU before this point.

For this reason, Avengers: Doomsday should position itself more like 2012’s The Avengers. The former should focus more on the excitement of seeing several characters coming together for the first time and building their relationships and dynamics, as opposed to banking on any that are pre-existing. Even beyond its story, Avengers: Doomsday is better off being compared to 2012’s The Avengers.

Avengers: Doomsday’s Box Office Only Needs To Match The Avengers’

From a box office perspective, it is unrealistic to expect Avengers: Doomsday to match the $2 billion haul of Avengers: Infinity War. In recent years, the MCU’s box office has taken a bit of a hit, with only two of its last seven movies being truly profitable. This has proven that wider audiences may not be as into the MCU as they once were.

For Avengers: Doomsday, this may be a bit of a worry. However, the film does not need to earn $2 billion to be successful. Even a $1 billion haul would be promising, given that only two MCU movies have achieved this since 2019. In the last few years, the MCU’s box office returns have looked more akin to Phase 1 than Phase 3.

$400 million tends to be around the average of late. Movies like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts*, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps all came in around this benchmark, just like Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America: The First Avenger.

2012’s The Avengers then grossed a huge $1.5 billion, which only one MCU movie has achieved since 2019. Therefore, Avengers: Doomsday should be aiming for a similar haul. Given the story and box office similarities of Phases 5 and 6 with Phase 1, the concluding story of the former should align more with that of the latter.

After all, Avengers: Doomsday is the first team-up movie in that franchise since Avengers: Endgame. It cannot be expected to live up to the commercial heights of Avengers: Infinity War, which had years of build-up before it. Avengers: Doomsday has a lot on its plate, but it may be better viewed as a new version of The Avengers than anything else.