As MCU Phase 6 gets underway, it is now possible to reflect on how the worldwide box office totals of the preceding 5 MCU Phases rank. Combined, the MCU’s Phases have taken place over 17 years, beginning with Iron Man in 2008 and recently rounding out MCU Phase 5 with Thunderbolts*.

The MCU has earned Marvel Studios around $32 billion within that time, according to The Numbers. It is now the most successful film franchise in history, surpᴀssing such cinematic powerhouses as Star Wars and James Bond, for example.

While the sheer volume of movies that comprise the MCU is largely to thank for this success, the singular success of its composite films also cannot be overlooked. Across all MCU Phases, there are now 11 $1 billion movies in the MCU, a number that Marvel Studios is no doubt hoping to increase in the near future.

The volume of movies and their individual success also play a significant role in the overall success of each MCU Phase. With that in mind, here is how each MCU Phase has fared across 17 years, and how each consтιтuent movie affected their box office totals.

5

MCU Phase 5

The MCU’s most recent Phase, MCU Phase 5, is also its least successful so far. Taking place between 2023 and 2025, it is composed of six movies. Although this is the average number of movies for an MCU Phase, it is the first time that one has been composed of six movies since MCU Phase 2.

MCU Phase 5’s most successful movie by far is ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine, which earned $1.3 billion to become the MCU’s sixth-highest-grossing movie overall. Unfortunately, its success was counterbalanced by The Marvels, which became the MCU’s lowest-grossing movie in 2023 with a comparatively paltry $200 million worldwide gross.

MCU Phase 5 is indicative of the Multiverse Saga’s stresses since it launched with Black Widow in 2021. In the wake of the seminal Avengers: Endgame, the Multiverse Saga has struggled to find its footing as it debuted a brand-new array of Marvel heroes and began bolstering the ranks of the MCU’s lowest-rated movies.

Sadly, despite the critical acclaim enjoyed by Thunderbolts*, it and other MCU Phase 5 movies like Captain America: Brave New World are also emblematic of why casual audiences have begun to sour on the MCU. One of the core reasons is that they require viewing such installments as the six-hour-long The Falcon and the Winter Soldier on Disney+.

4

MCU Phase 1

Despite containing just as many movies as MCU Phases 5 and 2 and fewer than Phases 3 and 4, MCU Phase 1 spans more years than any other. Launching the MCU with 2008’s Iron Man, it took almost exactly 4 years for 2012’s The Avengers to round it out.

MCU Phase 1 contained the collection of movies that revolutionized the superhero movie genre. Although Iron Man was released in the same year as the first superhero movie to gross $1 billion, The Dark Knight, it was one of five contributors that set The Avengers in good standing to break multiple records at the time, including:

• The highest-grossing superhero movie
• The highest-grossing movie released by Disney
• The highest-grossing movie of 2012
• The third-highest-grossing movie of all time

These accolades speak to the success of MCU Phase 1. However, that success was tempered by the MCU’s second movie, The Incredible Hulk, which remained the MCU’s lowest-grossing movie until The Marvels clinched that undesirable accolade.

Despite being so widely lauded overall, MCU Phase 1 also contains two of the MCU’s lowest-rated movies, specifically The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man 2​​​​​. Still, the unprecedented success of the then-$3.8 billion franchise was sufficient in springboarding the MCU into the cultural stratosphere and heralding the unparalleled success of subsequent phases.

3

MCU Phase 2

After the success of MCU Phase 1, MCU Phase 2 accelerated the MCU’s release schedule. The two movies per year from 2013 to 2015 began with sequels for each of the MCU’s newly established Big Three: Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor, and ended with the debut of several new superheroes and a second Avengers movie.

Thanks in large part to the тιтular superhero’s meteoric popularity, Iron Man 3 became the MCU’s second $1 billion movie, releasing immediately after the first. MCU Phase 2 would then go on to house the MCU’s third with Avengers: Age of Ultron in 2015, although the second Avengers movie still fell short of the heights reached by the first.

Avengers: Age of Ultron remains the MCU’s lowest-grossing and lowest-rated Avengers movie, although it is hardly considered a failure by either metric. Thor: The Dark World also became the MCU’s worst-rated movie overall, a тιтle it kept for eight years, although its global box office still exceeded every non-Avengers movie from MCU Phase 1.

While Thor: The Dark World and Avengers: Age of Ultron might have shaken confidence in the franchise at the time, MCU Phase 2’s critical fortunes were kept aloft by two of the MCU’s most critically acclaimed movies, Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Both these movies helped to breathe new life into the franchise as they struck decidedly novel tones to what audiences had become accustomed to. This may have helped to supercharge enthusiasm for the MCU overall, as they proved to audiences that the MCU could continue to push boundaries six years in.

2

MCU Phase 4

Although it only housed seven movies, unlike MCU Phase 3’s eleven, MCU Phase 4 suffered from overcrowding. This is because it was additionally crammed with eight Disney+ shows, of which six were directly tied to the mainline MCU’s narrative (potentially seven, if the events of Moon Knight are ever acknowledged).

It is difficult to ascertain how the MCU’s first TV shows affected the overall profits of MCU Phase 4, but its collection of movies fared well irrespective of Disney+’s impact. MCU Phase 4 is now the second-highest-grossing MCU phase, thanks largely to the fact that it contained so many MCU heavyweights.

Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Thor, and Black Panther each boast particularly profitable movies in MCU Phase 4. Additionally, while Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness fell short of $1 billion by just $48 million, Spider-Man: No Way Home earned nearly $2 billion to become the MCU’s third-highest-grossing movie.

Working against MCU Phase 4’s box office total was its first three movies, which collectively grossed $700 million less than Spider-Man: No Way Home. Black Widow was given a simultaneous release in theaters and on Disney+, while Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Eternals debuted brand-new characters.

1

MCU Phase 3

MCU Phase 3 remains the franchise’s busiest phase, with a grand total of eleven cinematic releases between May 2016 and July 2019. It also played host, for the first time, to two Avengers movies, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, with the former releasing one year after the latter.

With a $13 billion worldwide gross, MCU Phase 3 sets an impossibly high bar. It houses four $1 billion movies and the MCU’s only $2 billion movies, meaning more than half of the movies that comprise the entire phase broke the $1 billion mark, with several others, like Spider-Man: Homecoming, coming dangerously close.

Enthusiasm for the MCU was at its highest with MCU Phase 3, which opened with what is arguably an Avengers movie in disguise, Captain America: Civil War. It also hosted the MCU’s two most successful cinematic debuts with Black Panther and Captain Marvel.

With only four movies on MCU Phase 6’s release slate at the time of writing, it is impossible for the phase that will round out the Multiverse Saga to replicate this success. Nevertheless, should these movies match the overall quality of those released in MCU Phase 3, it could at least help to set up future MCU Phases for similar success.