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Box office 2019: MCU breaks all-time franchise record with $5 billion in a single year
The MCU wasn't just content to release the highest-grossing film of all time this year (Avengers: Endgame), it also had to shatter the record for most money brought in by a franchise at the box office in a single year.
Between Captain Marvel ($1.128 billion), Endgame ($2.795 billion), and Spider-Man: Far From Home ($1.096 billion), Marvel Studios has racked up a whopping $5 billion worldwide since March. That's insane (in the best way possible, of course) and a testament to how Kevin Feige's major gamble to create a connected comic book universe on the big screen has paid off massive dividends. Who could have guessed that the Disney-owned Marvel films would be bringing in fortune-upon-fortune when the first Iron Man hit theaters back in 2008?
"I honestly can’t think of a single franchise that has done what Marvel has," Karie Bible of Exhibitor Relations Co. tells SYFY WIRE. It was ERC, which provided us with the figures we cited above. "Look at other franchises like say Star Wars, Harry Potter, Bond, Lord of the Rings, Fast & Furious, Jurassic Park, etc. They tend to space out their releases by a year or more. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has so many tentacles or branches of the franchise that there is really no comparison."
With Phase 4 just on the horizon with Black Widow (May 1, 2020) and Eternals (Nov. 6, 2020), Marvel Studios and Disney could very well break their own record in the future. As it proved this year, three solid releases are all it needs to make those dolla dolla bills, y'all. And while it's possible for another franchise to pose a threat down the road, the odds aren't great for anything not coming out of the MCU at this time.
"The odds are great. Marvel is on a creative roll and they show no signs of stopping," concludes Bible. "It is always possible that another franchise could break the record, but there is nothing on the horizon that looks to unseat it. Again, Marvel has so many characters and branches that other franchises don’t have."
