‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Boosts MCU Box Office to New Record

After a disappointing few years marked by box office under-performance and audience apathy, Marvel Studios will be celebrating a long-overdue return to form this weekend. Not only has its latest release, Deadpool & Wolverine, delivered a record-breaking debut at the box office, but the film’s strong performance has also pushed the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s cumulative global revenue past an unreal milestone. Now 34 movies deep, the MCU has redefined modern studio filmmaking with its successful crossover storytelling, a deep reverence for the source material, and enough creative pedigree to attract the biggest filmmakers and stars in the world.

Thanks to Deadpool & Wolverine’s $438 million global box office debut, the MCU has now generated over $30 billion worldwide. The achievement was announced by studio president Kevin Feige at Marvel’s panel at the San Diego Comic-Con this weekend, where future films were teased, and Robert Downey Jr.’s grand return to the blockbuster franchise was revealed in typically dramatic fashion. The MCU is by far the top-grossing film franchise in history, ahead of Star Wars ($10 billion worldwide) and James Bond ($7.8 billion worldwide).

As many as 10 of the series’ 34 films have grossed over $1 billion worldwide, while two — Avengers: Endgame and Avengers: Infinity War — have generated over $2 billion worldwide. Additionally, four Marvel movies are ranked among the top 10 highest-grossing movies of all time — Endgame ($2.7 billion), Infinity War ($2 billion), Spider-Man: No Way Home ($1.9 billion), and The Avengers ($1.5 billion). These are incredible records; box office domination like this hasn’t been seen in years.

But despite its sustained success for the better part of a decade-and-a-half, Marvel experienced a major setback with the commercial under-performance of its pandemic-era movies. While Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Eternals could blame the after-effects of COVID for their low grosses, movies such as Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and The Marvels had no excuse. That being said, three recent MCU movies — Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3 — all did wonderfully well at the box office, despite the phenomenon known as “superhero fatigue” having set in.

The MCU is in the midst of a major transition. Feige laid out the franchise’s future at the SDCC, a future that will be marked by the introduction of Marvel’s “first family” in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, followed by the back-to-back tent-poles Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, both directed by the returning filmmakers Joe Russo and Anthony Russo, and featuring Downey as the villainous Doctor Doom.

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Source: Collider