Will any 2022 superhero movies reach $1 billion at the box office?

In late 2021, Spider-Man proved that millions of people around the world will head to theaters for a special cinematic experience. Can any films duplicate the webslinger’s box office success this year? 

If you take Spider-Man: No Way Home out of the equation when looking back at last year’s box office statistics, no other American release came close to bringing in $1 billion at the worldwide box office. No Time to Die landed in second at around $775 million. So obviously, not only was Spidey the only superhero movie to hit the mark, it was the only 2021 movie to do it at all. The Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbuster will be finishing its box office run a lot closer to $2 billion (currently with just under $1.9 billion).

A few superhero films have been released thus far in 2022. The Batman has been out for over a month and is enjoying considerable revenues for Warner Bros. It is sitting at around $735 million and will finish above $750 million. While the previous solo Bat-flick, The Dark Knight Rises, strolled into the billion-dollar club ten years ago, Matt Reeves’  Batman still had to earn a reputation since it is a rebooted franchise starter.

Morbius dropped in theaters in early April without too many expectations. Sure, it has a connection to the MCU’s Spider-Man, but it is not a MCU movie, and it is the first live-action appearance of the living vampire. Even fans weren’t sure exactly how Michael Keaton’s Vulture would fit in before seeing it, so its Spidey link was probably completely overlooked by casual movie-goers. After two weekends, Morbius brought in about $125 million globally, and it will be lucky if it makes $200 million before exiting cinemas.

Will 2022 see anymore billion-dollar hits at the box office?

Looking forward in 2022, DC’s only upcoming live-action efforts will be in the Shazam family, Black Adam and Shazam: Fury of the Gods. Since the first Shazam couldn’t crack half a billion dollars back in 2019, and given that these characters are nowhere near as popular as Batman, that leaves the box office burden on the MCU, with three shots at pulling off $1 billion for comic book adaptations this year.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness looks to cast a spell on audiences next month. The first Doctor Strange was actually a pretty big hit for an introductory solo hero movie – it hauled in $678 million in 2016. That was the first time Benedict Cumberbatch graced the screen as the sorcerer supreme. Now anticipation for the sequel has ballooned following several mind-blowing appearances by the wizard in the MCU, most recently in No Way Home. The multiverse turned out to be a huge draw for moviegoers since it opens up the possibilities of characters from different movie universes interacting with each other.

Thor: Love and Thunder follows this summer for the Marvel franchise. This will be the fourth standalone movie for the god of thunder and the financial trajectory of the Thor series has been improving with each film. Thor made about $450 million worldwide, followed by The Dark World with $645 million, while Ragnarok pulled in a whopping $854 million, embarrassing Justice League, which opened a few weeks later and failed to reach $700 million. At this rate, Love and Thunder could very well push Thor over the billion-dollar line.

Later this year, we can all look forward to the Black Panther sequel. The success of Ryan Coogler’s first movie was a big news story in 2018, particularly because of its predominantly African American cast and crew. It is the first MCU movie to generate $700 million domestically and its global tally of just under $1.35 billion rivaled Avenger level numbers. Could Wakanda Forever be this year’s No Way Home?

History would point to Black Panther: Wakanda Forever being the most likely superhero release to make $1 billion this year, however all three MCU offerings have the potential to blast through at the box office. Especially since Doctor Strange and Thor are just as treasured at this point in time as ever.

Which superhero movie do you think will be the biggest box office blockbuster of the year? Let us know in the comments below.