TheMarvel Cinematic Universehas seen incredible box office success with its Avengers movies, with even the series' lowest grossing release -Avengers: Age of Ultron- making a considerable amount of money and revealing quite a lot about the MCU as a whole at the same time.Avengers: Age of Ultroncame out three years afterThe Avengersshattered all expectations at the box office. Despite astronomical levels of hype, the sequel failed to live up to its predecessor in a few different ways.
With that said,Age of Ultronstill made over a billion dollars at the box office, and served as further proof that the franchise would continue to succeed on a long-term basis. As such,Avengers: Age of Ultronwas a success, setting up multiple plot threadsthe MCU timelinewould explore going forward, revealing a lot about the MCU’s box office potential as a whole, and even puttingupcoming MCU moviesin a different context via what it says about the franchise.
The Avengers' “Worst” Box Office Is Still Mind-Blowing
Avengers: Age of Ultronwas released to weaker critical scores, and its opening weekend failed to reach the same heights asThe Avengers, making about $191 million compared to $207 million.The Avengerswas such a success story that anything that failed to live up to those lofty expectations was going to be called into question. At the time, it felt like a bit of a disappointment, andAvengers: Age of Ultronended up making less overall than the first film, but it is still incredibly impressive just how well it did overall.
2012
$1,515,100,211
2015
$1,395,316,979
2018
$2,048,359,754
2019
$2,748,242,781
There have been 34 films released in theMCU’s movie rostersince it first kicked off in 2008.Avengers: Age of Ultronstill ranks fifth overall in the franchise’s worldwide box office, which is a considerable thing to note given Marvel’s overall success in this field. In fact, the only MCU movie that has made more that isn’t anAvengersmovie isSpider-Man: No Way Home, which exploded from decades of nostalgia. Looking beyond the MCU,Avengers: Age of Ultronis ranked 16th at the box office for any movie ever made. It was and always will be a runaway success.
The Avengers' Box Office Is Still Impressive To This Day
Iron Manblew everyone away when it was released in 2008, and just four years laterThe Avengerswas released, changing the movie industry forever.It made $207 million domestic opening weekend, which smashed the record at the time;Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2was the previous record holder at just under $170 million in the domestic opening weekend. The success ofThe Avengerslead to Marvel being the most dominant franchise of all time, and spawned a plethora of other cinematic universes in its wake that hoped to mirror the MCU.
The Avengers (2012) Cast - Where Are They Now?
2012’s The Avengers is one of the most important films in MCU history, and its star-studded cast has gone on to do great things in and out of the MCU.
It’s hard to overstate just how importantThe Avengerswas for Marvel Studios. In fact,The Avengersis still in the top five highest grossing MCU films of all time, in front ofAvengers: Age of Ultronand behindSpider-Man: No Way Home. It also sits at 11th in the overall box office for any film ever made. In an age where it was unclear whether Marvel could pull off a cross-franchise team up,The Avengersproved (in still impressive fashion) just how big these movies could be, and that is only made clearer when it’s compared to its sequel.
A Higher MCU Budget Doesn’t Always Mean A Better Box Office
Sometimes it feels like studios think there is a correlation between a film’s production budget and the amount of money it will make at the box office. Of course, some of the biggest films of all time have been the most expensive to ever be made, butthat doesn’t necessarily mean a bigger budget automatically means more money. This is something the MCU has shown over the years, especially in more recent releases.
The Marvels, MCU’s lowest grossing movie, has the fourth-highest production budget.
The Avenger’sbudget back in 2012 was $225 million, whileAvengers: Age of Ultronwas made for $365 million, a significant jump compared to the first. In fact,Avengers: Age of Ultronis the second most expensive MCU film, just behindAvengers: Endgame. When a franchise gets huge, it feels like studios want to make the next installments even bigger, which results in these massive budgets. Add in the fact that actors are negotiating for higher pay following the success, and it results in movies being more expensive while not necessarily bringing in more money in the long run.
Age Of Ultron’s MCU Status Reveals A Franchise Trick
When looking atAvengers: Age of Ultronand its relation to the rest of the MCU, another thing seems to stand out.Even the “worst performing"Avengersmovie typically makes more than any solo superhero moviethat the MCU has put out.Spider-Man: No Way Homemay be the third highest grossing movie for Marvel, but that is the outlier in the top five, with the remaining spots taken up by the fourAvengersmovies.
Team-up (or crossover) films are what really dominate the box office.
Overall, team-up (or crossover) films are what really dominate the box office, with some anomalies likeIron Man 3orBlack Panther. It’s worth noting thatCaptain America: Civil War- which could be seen as partially Avengers 2.5 - made considerably more arguably because of its more team-focused story, with its $1.15 billion worldwide box office coming in at almost four hundred thousand dollars more thanCaptain America: Winter Soldier, which has the series' next highest box office numbers. Team-ups are a natural hit, and something likeDeadpool & Wolverineperforming incredibly well in 2024 shows that remains true.
Avengers: Age of Ultronhas aged a bit more gracefully over the course of the MCU since it first appeared. It had a lot of heavy lifting to do in terms of setting up the rest of Marvel’s Infinity Saga narrative, includingThor: Ragnarok,Captain America: Civil War, and Iron Man’s paranoia, which is the driving back-half of his story that culminates inAvengers: Endgame. It’s easy to overlookAvengers: Age of Ultron, but it still remains one of the MCU’s most successful movies years later, and serves to help underline a lot of noteworthy things for the franchise.
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Cast
Avengers: Age of Ultron, released in 2015, follows Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, including Iron Man and Captain America, as they contend with Ultron, a rogue AI with plans for global annihilation. This Marvel sequel sees The Avengers form uneasy alliances and embark on a perilous global adventure to thwart Ultron’s schemes.
