Marvel Studios will welcome the 30th entry into its ever-expanding cinematic universe this week with the release of “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.”
The home of characters such as Spider-Man and Captain America has almost single-handedly transformed the blockbuster moviegoing experience into the domain of superheroes and franchise entertainment.
And it is paid off handsomely for parent company Disney, which paid $4 billion for Marvel in 2009.
Since the release of “Iron Man 2” in 2010, Marvel has helped Disney earn $22.5 billion at the global box office. “Thor: Love and Thunder” and “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” grossed a combined $1.69 billion in 2022.
10 of the 29 movies that have been released since “Iron Man” (2008), which marked the beginning of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, has raked in more than $1 billion worldwide.
According to what we believe a blockbuster should gross, they set a new standard in the film industry, says Exhibitor Relations Co. media analyst Jeff Bock on CNBC Make It.
In terms of how we even frame that conversation, they represent the pinnacle of box office success.
Even the lowest-grossing Marvel films managed to make significant sums of money at the box office, with “Black Widow” earning $379 million and “Eternals” earning $401 million, despite the pandemic’s impact on theater attendance and the negative reviews that affected their box office performance.
“Wakanda Forever” is the follow-up to 2018’s “Black Panther,” which grossed $1.3 billion and is currently the 14th highest-grossing film of all time.
It remains to be seen whether it will live up to the original’s performance, as the film is missing Chadwick Boseman, who played the titular Black Panther and died in 2020 after a private cancer battle.
However, the loss of “Black Panther’s” star does not mean that audiences will not flock to see the film. Bock notes that “Fast” fans came out in droves to see “Furious 7,” despite the fact that star Paul Walker died in the middle of filming.
That film earned $1.5 billion and is currently the No. 10 highest-grossing film of all time, it also included a heartfelt tribute to Walker.
“When we talk about Chadwick Boseman’s death, this is a tribute to him,” Bock says. “You would think that a lot of people will turn out for this in the same way that they did for ‘Furious 7’.”
“Wakanda Forever” will have a relatively clear runway to try to outperform its predecessor, with no other major releases scheduled until James Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” arrives in theaters in mid-December.
If recent history is any guide, Marvel’s 30th film will be a box-office success.
“When we look at the top 10, top 20 films of all time, those are now populated with a lot of Marvel films and will remain so for a long time,” Bock says.
“A lot of people were calling for the demise of the superhero film, which was a little premature.” Some may be sick of them, but audiences are not.”
