Disney’s Latest Marvel Movie Turns In Worst Box-Office Showing for Marvel

The latest superhero movie released by Disney (DIS) posted the worst showing for a Marvel film in the franchise’s 15-year run, earning just $47 million on its opening weekend.

The Marvels opened in theaters last week and earned less than the lowest-revenue entry in the series to date, The Incredible Hulk. One of the earliest MCU films, The Incredible Hulk brought in $55 million on its opening weekend in 2008 shortly after the franchise was launched.

The weak performance at the box office could reflect a decline in audiences’ appetite for superhero films. Disney has for years loaded viewers with Marvel spinoffs, sequels, and series on TV and at theaters.

“The notion of having connected universes and characters traveling between the big and small screen has created some disinterest by audiences,” Senior Comscore Analyst Paul Dergarabedian told Variety.

While $47 million is still nearly three times as much as the average domestic box office take so far this year, such “flops” have been the exception during MCU’s 15-year run. The franchise has produced a series of blockbuster fan favorites and raked in billions of dollars at the box office through its lineup of more than 30 movies to date.

Here is a list of some of the highest-grossing Marvel films of all time, ranked by opening weekend box-office revenue in the U.S.

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Avengers: Endgame, the final movie within MCU’s Infinity saga, which starred actors such as Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, and Mark Ruffalo, was the franchise’s most successful to date, raking in $350 million on its opening weekend in the U.S., and more than $1 billion worldwide. It’s become the second highest-grossing movie of all time, generating nearly $2.8 billion worldwide over its lifetime, a figure surpassed only by 2009’s Avatar.

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

Spider-Man: No Way Home premiered in December 2021 and earned $260 million in its first weekend. The film would go on to gross more than $800 million in the U.S., and more than $1 billion worldwide.

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Avengers: Infinity War, the prequel to Avengers: Endgame, premiered in 2018 to $257 million in its opening weekend. The film would eventually generate $679 million in the U.S., and with a worldwide box office of $2.04 billion, became the second-highest-grossing Marvel movie of all time.

The Avengers (2012)

Released more than a decade ago, 2012’s The Avengers still ranks among the MCU franchise’s most profitable, bringing in just more than $200 million during its opening weekend. Over its lifetime, The Avengers would go on to gross $623 million in the U.S., and more than $1.5 billion worldwide.

Black Panther (2018)

Closing out the list of top five highest-grossing MCU films is Black Panther, which debuted in 2018 to $202 million at the weekend box office. It would go on to gross $700 million in the U.S., and more than $1.3 billion globally.