Captain America: The First Avenger was a solid entry in the early Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), but The Incredible Hulk played a pivotal role in upholding the movie for well over a decade. To be fair, the MCU was not a clear or well-understood concept before 2012, when The Avengers came out and proved this concept of a shared universe could absolutely work.
But, since then, the MCU has experienced tremendous growth, getting into a period where almost every movie released earned in excess of a billion dollars. Today, the MCU is again on a bit of a dip, but if it wasn’t for The Incredible Hulk coming out back in 2008, it could have looked very different.
And for one hero in particular, Captain America, his record could have been tarnished had the MCU not featured The Incredible Hulk earlier in the saga, which ended up becoming the black sheep of the shared universe family.
Captain America: The First Avenger Came Very Close To Being The MCU’s Lowest Box Office Release
Captain America: The First Avenger Was Not The Biggest Box Office Winner
As referenced above, the MCU was able to rocket to a position where it was earning a billion dollars or more for a long stretch. However, it didn’t start out that way. The MCU was initially a gamble for the studios and producers backing the movies, and thankfully it paid off.
But despite tremendous success for movies like Iron Man in 2008, that wasn’t enough to propel the earnings of the other MCU movies above $500 million on a regular basis. That success came after The Avengers came out in 2012. But Captain America: The First Avenger, which came out in 2011, fell far short of that figure with about $370 million, which is still impressive, but lower than any other MCU entry up to that point (via The Numbers).
Except for The Incredible Hulk, which came out in 2008, and earned $265 million. Thanks to their lower earnings, it resulted in The First Avenger avoiding the lowest earning spot on the MCU roster, a record which wouldn’t be broken for many years.
Why The Incredible Hulk’s Box Office Was Lower Than Captain America: The First Avenger
The Incredible Hulk Was An Outlier In The MCU
Now, this isn’t to say the quality of these movies is drastically worse. The Incredible Hulk stars Edward Norton, a highly respected actor, and has spectacular visual effects that remain impressive to this date. But, there were some things holding this movie back from the success that was enjoyed by its contemporary superhero films.
First, there was another Hulk movie that was released just five years earlier, with a different actor, a different director, and by all accounts, a very different story. This made The Incredible Hulk a confusing release, and less appealing than a new and novel story like Captain America: The First Avenger.
It also came in the same year as Iron Man, which was the first movie of the MCU, and at a time when this shared universe of stories idea was little more than a pipe dream. Yes, the post-credits scenes of both movies hint at bigger links to come, but The Incredible Hulk didn’t seem as necessary.
There was also controversy and noise around the release, which made it seem as though things didn’t go too smoothly behind the scenes, and Edward Norton was unlikely to return to play the role. With no potential for a future for this version of the character, the proposition of his debut movie became a much less appealing offering.
2023 Changed The Incredible Hulk & Captain America: The First Avenger’s Place In The MCU Box Office Lineup
The Marvels Unfortunately Lowered The Bar For The MCU Box Office
Evidently, The Incredible Hulk ended up earning more than a hundred million dollars less than The First Avenger, which speaks volumes about how these movies were received by the audience, and the interest that these projects generated. But what’s more interesting is the fact that the MCU would not earn so little as either of these movies for the next 15 years.
From 2008 to 2023, the lowest-earning movies in the MCU still turned a decent profit over the production budget, and they set up a series of films that would create a buzz unlike any other franchise in the history of cinema. And with billion-dollar hit after billion-dollar hit, the MCU was on a roll to keep earning these spectacular figures for years to come.
But, after the release of Avengers: Endgame, a movie that became the highest-grossing movie of all time for a brief period before Avatar was re-released and retook the top spot, there was a drop-off. Interest in the franchise waned, the commitment got bigger, and unfortunately, the Multiverse Saga didn’t hit the ground running like the Infinity Saga did.
With billion-dollar hit after billion-dollar hit, the MCU was on a roll to keep earning these spectacular figures for years to come.
So, the MCU saw a major fall in profits from their movies, and in 2023, The Incredible Hulk was replaced by The Marvels as the new lowest-earning movie of the MCU. Granted, it still earned nearly $200 million, but it was not soaring to the heights that the early MCU seemed to easily scale.
The results for the MCU have been varied since then, with some movies approaching a billion dollars, and the promise of some big stories in The Fantastic Four: First Steps and Avengers: Doomsday. But, for Captain America: The First Avenger, it owes a debt of graтιтude to The Incredible Hulk for not being ranked as the lowest-earning тιтle of the MCU for 15 years.
