After the immense critical and commercial success of Avengers: Doomsday, fans felt like the Marvel Cinematic Universe had reached its pinnacle and that no other superhero project would be able to top such an ambitious crossover. Unfortunately, that sentiment has proven to be true in many ways to date.
Granted, the MCU is gearing up for two major releases in the form of Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars, which might capture some of that magic that made us fall in love with superhero stories in the first place while surpassing anything that has been done before on the big screen. However, it's impossible to deny that the Multiverse Saga has been paved with more misses than we originally expected from the superhero giant.
While movies such as Deadpool & Wolverine, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 managed to win over fans' hearts while being a success at the box office, not many other films can say the same. Eternals had such disappointing results that the ensemble of heroes was never seen again in the MCU (aside from a few animated projects). Furthermore, The Marvels failed to earn as much as its predecessor, while Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania fell short of expectations. To make matters worse, one of Marvel's greatest cinematic records came to an unexpected end in 2025.
No Marvel movie made it into 2025's top 10 box office, ending a record of over a decade
For the first time since 2011, a year went by without Marvel securing a spot on the top 10 biggest box office hits of the year. Some of the movies that topped the chart in 2025 include Ne Zha 2, Avatar: Fire and Ash, Lilo & Stitch, Jurassic World Rebirth, and F1: The Movie. Incidentally, the only superhero film to make it into the top 10 is Superman, which was produced by DC, Marvel's direct competitor.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps was the highest-grossing MCU movie of 2025, sitting at the 13th overall ranking spot and earning a little over $520 million at the worldwide box office. Captain America: Brave New World came in second for the MCU, reaching the $415 million mark and securing the 17th spot on the list. In last place, we find Thunderbolts*, which earned $382 million at the worldwide box office and fell to the 18th spot.
Interestingly enough, 2025 was a fantastic year for Marvel in terms of critical reception. Granted, Captain America: Brave New World proved to be a polarizing film, but Thunderbolts* and The Fantastic Four: First Steps are considered some of the best projects in the entirety of the Multiverse Saga. This indicates that the disappointing box office results aren't directly correlated to the movies themselves, but rather to the MCU's shaky track record since the release of Avengers: Endgame.
During the past few years, audiences have been bombarded with a lot of MCU content both on the big screen and on Disney+. Most of these projects haven't been related to the multiverse at all, despite taking place in the Multiverse Saga, and their quality has dropped significantly compared to some of the projects in the Infinity Saga. While these elements have certainly played a part in audiences not showing up to movie theaters, the superhero giant has also been a victim of its own success.
As the MCU has grown over the years, it has introduced multiple characters throughout different movies and TV series. So, if you wanted to watch Thunderbolts* knowing the backstory of every member of the team, you would have needed to watch Black Widow, Ant-Man and the Wasp, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and even the first Captain America. Suddenly, watching a movie starts to feel like a chore as opposed to something you'd do for fun. While Thunderbolts* did a fantastic job of telling a standalone story without requiring any previous knowledge, general audiences didn't know that beforehand.
2026 will be very important in determining the fate of the MCU. The only two movies releasing this year are Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which will shine the spotlight on Marvel's most popular character, and Avengers: Doomsday, an unprecedented superhero crossover of epic proportions. If those projects bomb at the box office, then audiences might witness the end of a superhero era. However, both films could also reignite fans' interest in the overall franchise, marking the start of a better chapter for the MCU that won't be filled with too many projects just for the sake of it.
Will 2025 be the one and only year when Marvel doesn't have a spot in the top 10 highest-grossing movies of the year? Well, it won't be long before we finally find out.