Into the Marvelverse
Of course, it's hard to discuss the genre without talking about the studio that's been a constant in the superhero movie world: Marvel. Since the release of Ironman in 2008 and the studio's acquisition by Disney just 1 year later, Marvels' moviemaking has been prolific, getting faster and faster as the years have progressed. The studio originally set an ambitious goal of 2 movies each year, before upping that to 3 in 2017 after regularly reaching that quota.
There’s been a voracious appetite to meet the studio’s output too, with the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) quickly rising to become the highest-grossing movie franchise of all time. Indeed, Marvel’s releases to date (including Gunn’s Guardians 3) have hauled in a genuinely staggering $29.3 billion and, whilst that’s obviously not all profit, it makes Disney’s $4 billion acquisition back in 2009 look like a bonafide masterstroke.
Slowdown
Recently, the Marvel machine hasn’t been quite so efficient in churning out megahits… at least not by its own high standards. After Disney started producing and distributing Marvel movies in 2012, the studio has turned crossing the $1 billion worldwide box office threshold into its own superpower, with 10 films hitting that milestone. However, since 2021’s Spider-Man installment, none of the studio’s last 5 films has broken through.
