Now that Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has provided the closing chapter to the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Phase Four, let’s take a look at how the installments stack up based on opening weekend box office earnings.
For the purposes of our list, we will focus exclusively on domestic opening weekend box office earnings, since films can sometimes be subjected to censorship in other countries that would make comparing each one like apples to oranges. We’ll also be excluding re-releases for simplicity’s sake.
Without further ado, here’s every MCU Phase Four movie ranked from lowest to highest opening weekend box office earnings.
7. Eternals – $71,297,219
Eternals faced a perfect storm of challenges that ultimately resulted in the lowest domestic box office opening weekend in our entire list, according to Box Office Mojo. Despite Shang-Chi releasing just a couple of months before — in the fall of 2021 — and showing a glimmer of recovery for the movie industry in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Eternals did not manage to reach the same high water mark. Plus, its reputation as the MCU’s only “rotten” entry according to the review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, and introducing a slate of 10 superhero characters unfamiliar to the public, proved to not do the movie any favors in terms of rounding out a healthy box office return overall. Still, Chloe Zhao’s direction did bring a unique and philosophical vision to the MCU for which we truly respect Eternals.
6. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings – $75,388,688
From a critical standpoint, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is among the finest achievements in the MCU’s Phase Four. That’s why it is all the more surprising that the Simu Lieu-starring film that gave audiences an adrenaline shot of hand-to-hand martial arts in the MCU for the first time does not rank higher on our list. However, with the movie releasing in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, the box office dollars it did manage to pull off is astounding, all things considered. In fact, the film became the highest-grossing movie since the pandemic began when it was released in Sept. 2021, according to Entertainment Weekly.
5. Black Widow – $80,366,312
If any film on this list deserves to be graded on a curve, it’s probably Black Widow. That is because the film was released in the early summer of 2021 at a time when COVID-inspired social distancing protocols were still in full effect for many parts of North America. Not only that, but what little box office profits could have been squeezed out of the situation was arguably undermined by Black Widow’s simultaneous release on the streaming service Disney Plus—a move that inspired star Scarlet Johansson to sue the House Mouse for violating her contract. Critically speaking, the movie was a serviceable enough action spy thriller, but the fact that it was a prequel sapped some of the tension from the film since audiences already saw the ultimate fate of Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff play out in the events of Avengers: Endgame. It’s a real shame because had the movie been released around the time of the original Captain America trilogy, in the mid-2010s, it could have been a benchmark release that served an important piece of the puzzle in the lead-up to the confrontation with Thanos. Johansson was certainly deserving of a stand-alone film in the MCU, we just wished Disney was not so behind the times on getting it released.
4. Thor: Love and Thunder – $144,165,107
Thor: Love and Thunder was the highly anticipated follow-up to Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok, which is considered by many to be one of the finest MCU films of all time. What we got with Love and Thunder was a typically joke-infused and colorful Marvel adventure, but offered little else by way of innovating the formula. While Christian Bale’s Gorr the God Butcher was fantastic in the role, he had surprisingly few scenes. The same could be said of the Guardians of the Galaxy’s brief appearance. But at the end of the day, Chris Hemsworth’s Thor and Natalie Portman’s very welcome return as Jane Foster proved to please audiences enough to not make the film a total flop. In fact, Love and Thunder netted an even higher domestic opening weekend and overall gross than Ragnarok.
3. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – $181,339,761
In some ways, it’s surprising Black Panther: Wakanda Forever wasn’t a bigger hit considering the original film had an opening weekend north of $200 million. Still, at $181 million, Wakanda Forever netted close to its predecessor’s debut. When all the dust has settled, the Ryan Coogler-directed Wakanda Forever probably won’t be as big of a box office hit as Black Panther, overall. But it still delivered a lot of remarkable achievements for a sequel that had many adversities stacked against it. Most notably, Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman sadly passed away following a private, years-long battle with colon cancer before Wakanda Forever could go into production. Love it or hate it, there’s little disputing that Wakanda Forever is a loving tribute to Boseman’s King T’Challa, who is a character that also passed away from an illness in the world of the film. Now, there’s even considerable Oscar buzz for Angela Bassett’s performance as Queen Ramonda, which has proven to be the crown jewel of the film, overall.
2. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness – $187,420,998
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness may not be a perfect movie, but the return of Spider-Man director Sam Raimi behind the lens of a Marvel movie, the MCU’s debut feature to be firmly planted in the horror genre, and a few jaw-dropping character cameos was enough to make the film a tremendous hit with audiences. With cameos like Jon Krasinski’s Reed Richards and Patrick Stewart’s Professor Xavier, and the overall multiverse-traversing plot, the film gave MCU fans everywhere an exciting glimmer of what may be in store for the franchise’s future. Plus, the film’s opening date in the spring of 2022, a time in which many sections of the US and Canada left COVID-inspired shutdowns mostly in the rearview, proved a lucrative release window.
1. Spider-Man: No Way Home – $260,138,569
Did you expect any other movie to top our list other than the third-highest-grossing domestic movie of all time, Spider-Man: No Way Home (per Box Office Mojo)? That’s right, Tom Holland’s Peter Parker threequel, which also featured a couple of other Peters from other universes, has secured the number one spot on our list thanks to its quarter-of-a-billion-dollar opening weekend box office gross in the US and Canada. That is a major achievement, especially for the time it was released, around the tail end of most major COVID-inspired social distancing protocols in Dec. 2021. Indeed, many attendees at the theaters still had to wear a mask or social distance while viewing the movie, depending on the region you were in at the time.