The lowest-rated MCU movie on Rotten Tomatoes will shock you

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been a titan of cinema for close to two decades. It all started way back in 2008 with Jon Favreau's Iron Man, instantly making the titular Marvel Comics character a Hollywood heavyweight and reigniting Robert Downey Jr.'s star power. But that was just the beginning of the success that the franchise would go on to achieve.

16 years, 33 movies, and 11 TV shows later and the MCU is unrivalled as the biggest franchise in the world. What Kevin Feige has crafted at Marvel Studios has single-handedly changed the landscape of cinema itself, opening the door for more superheroes and shared universes to rise along the way.

Its track record is near-perfect, with the only cracks in its heroic armor coming both at the very beginning of the franchise and in its most recent outings. Fans and critics mostly respond to the MCU entries with adoration or acclaim, but occasionally even Marvel gets it wrong. With that in mind, let's find out what what the franchise's lowest-scoring film on Rotten Tomatoes is. It might surprise you!

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is the MCU's lowest-scoring film

Rotten Tomatoes has decreed that Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is the worst of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, with a score of just 46% meaning that it's one of the few within the franchise to receive a "rotten" rating (60 or above is considered "fresh"). This will likely come as a surprise to most because, while Ant-Man 3 wasn't exactly a high point for the MCU, it wasn't considered its worst either.

The film that most fans would have likely expected to hold that honor would have been Eternals. Released in 2021, the star-studded ensemble movie was the franchise's first to receive a "rotten" rating on the website and show a bit of weakness at the box office. The lukewarm reception has reportedly resulted in Marvel postponing a sequel indefinitely.

Unlike Eternals, Ant-Man 3 wasn't called the worst Marvel movie ever but it was incredibly disappointing for multiple reasons. For starters, the decision to give the Ant-Man character a "main event" storyline robbed the franchise of the fun element that made the two previous Ant-Man films such fun heist movies. It ended up just looking like any other of the CGI-heavy MCU movies but in a much less visually-appealing kind of way. It didn't look good, and the more serious plotline ensured that it didn't feel too good either.

It's also quite surprising that both Quantumania and Eternals score lower than the three early MCU movies that have always been seen as inferior to the rest of the franchise. As the MCU grew in scale, films such as The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, and Thor: The Dark World began to feel more and more obsolete, with fans often picking one of those three as their "least-favorite" MCU movie. But they actually rank a bit higher than some of the franchise's more recent installments in terms of their Tomatometer score

In fact, those three films scored higher than multiple recent MCU installments, including Eternals, The Marvels, and Thor: Love and Thunder; suggesting that the newer MCU outings aren't quite as strong as the franchise's glory days were (even those rare weaker examples).

Of course, reviewing is specific to everyone, so that doesn't necessarily mean that Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is the worst of the MCU franchise. Perhaps it's one of your favorites; that is, after all, the beauty of watching movies and television: Everybody has their own opinions.

Find out what we think is the worst MCU movie of them all by checking out our ranking below.