Why There Will (Probably) Never Be Another Movie Universe As Big As The MCU
Ever since the release of Iron Man in 2008, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been a huge part of our culture. It’s been a phenomenon ever since The Avengers was released in 2012, and as of the time this article was written in July 2022, has had its movies gross $26.6 billion. This is more than twice as much as Star Wars, which is the second most profitable movie franchise at “only” $10.32 billion, despite being a franchise that started 31 years before the MCU.
At this point, almost everyone has had the Marvel bug. Even people who would normally call comic book fans “nerds” as an insult are now attending these movies when they’re out in theaters.
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Based on an Existing Property
I know it’s obvious, but Marvel was around long before the MCU. Marvel has been around since 1939 when it was called Timely Comics, changing its name in 1961 to Marvel when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby started publishing Fantastic Four. Despite the fact that the Fantastic Four hasn’t been included in the MCU yet, aside from a token appearance of an alternate version of Mr. Fantastic in Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, it was the comic that set the stage for what the company would become. Eventually, other classic characters such as Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Spider-Man, and others became cultural icons, even before the MCU. Any new property that tries its hand at creating a Cinematic Universe is not going to have that head start, which makes for tough sledding in this era of franchising. Even in the 2020s thus far, the top 4 movies in terms of gross revenue (Spider-Man: No Way Home, Top Gun Maverick, Dr. Strange and The Multiverse of Madness, and Jurassic World: Dominion) are all sequels, with the Chinese film The Battle at Lake Changjin being the highest grossing original film. Recent decades are even gloomier for those looking to start fresh. Frozen is the highest grossing film in the 2010’s that isn’t a sequel or remake, and it’s ranked 14th overall, behind 5 MCU movies (the four Avengers movies and Black Panther).
Competitors Have Already Tried and Failed
It seems ever since The Avengers was such a big success, and Age of Ultron followed it up to show it wasn’t a fluke, everyone’s been trying to copy the MCU. Despite getting off to a strong start, the Star Wars sequel trilogy divided audiences. The DC Cinematic Universe hasn’t seen nearly the success, and many of its largest films have been highly panned. The Transformers franchise has seen a large fall in review scores from its own fanbase, a decline largely blamed on director Michael Bay. The Jurassic World franchise has, according to most people, never come close to matching the magic of the original. With many of its biggest competitors having already failed to create such a large universe, it’s hard to think of something that can succeed at this level.
Staying Power and Consistency of Releases
After reading about how many franchises have failed, and that an original film can’t make money, there is one exception that I have failed to address: James Cameron’s Avatar. Yes, Avatar was an original movie and is the highest-grossing film of all time. However, it’s missing out on one thing the MCU has: the sheer number of releases. Despite being released in 2009, Avatar has not yet had a sequel. Although one is scheduled to be released at the end of this year, with further sequels being released every 2 years, that’s not even close to the MCU. There have been a total of 29 MCU films released since 2008, which gives it an average of about two per year. This massive quantity of releases is also the reason franchises such as James Bond, Harry Potter and Lord of The Rings will likely never be able to compete at this level, despite the fact that their movies are wildly successful on both a financial and critical level.
It’s Hard to Find a Bad Movie
Even most big franchises are hit or miss, but the MCU seems to be very consistently doing a good job with hardly a poor showing. The average score for a movie on IMDB is 7.0/10. Out of the 29 movies released so far (including Thor: Love and Thunder), 18 of them (62%) are above average, with only 8 movies (28%) below average. The other three score exactly a 7.0. The lowest score is The Eternals, scoring a 6.3, a score that would place it at a level of mediocre, but not terrible. It’s also the only one scoring below a 6.5, meaning that every movie is at least okay. Endgame and Infinity War tie for the highest score, at 8.4, showing that there is a large upside besides just being slightly above average. The average MCU movie is 7.4, which might only seem just above adequate, until you remember that most large franchises start off strong and fade off. Marvel has hardly faded off, so it seems like they’re going to keep releasing decent movies with the occasional bombshell that hits it out of the park. Given the lack of flops, it’s hard to see the majority of people losing interest anytime soon.
More Than Just Movies
While the TV series in the MCU are seen as relatively average, they still add to the universe. These series, such as WandaVision, Moon Knight, Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki and Miss Marvel do their job of keeping people subscribed to Disney+. The ratings for these, for the most part, speak for themselves, as they’re some of the most watched shows on the streaming platform. Given that the Defenders series (Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist) have also become part of the MCU, and have been fused into MCU movies (Charlie Cox’s appearance in Spider-Man: No Way Home), there’s only going to be more stories to tell. Oh, and while we’re on that topic…
It Still Has Stories to Tell
The announcements at Comic-Con 2022 in San Diego showed Phases 5 and 6 of the already crowded cinematic universes. These two phases, as well as the already-in-progress 4th phase complete the Multiverse Saga. We’ll be seeing characters we’re already attached to grow in different ways, in projects like Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, Loki Season 2 and Guardians of The Galaxy Volume 3. We’ll also see previously minor characters expanded on and brought into the spotlight with Echo and Agatha: Coven of Chaos. We’ll also be getting characters who were popular in the comics, as well as others who have gotten movies outside of the MCU, such as Blade and Fantastic Four, and seeing characters in new roles, such as Captain Marvel and Miss Marvel together in The Marvels, and Sam Wilson taking the torch as the new Captain America in Captain America: New World Order. We also have two new Avengers movies announced, before what we can only assume will be a fresh saga in Phase 7.
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