It’s been a record breaking year for the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), having seen the culmination of its decade-long effort to unite all of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes on the big screen, Avengers: Infinity War, gross an unprecedented $250 million-plus stateside on opening weekend and subsequently become the fastest film ever to reach the $1 billion plateau.
Currently in Phase Three, what began with Jon Favreau’s Iron Man, the MCU has grown exponentially since the 2008 release. Nineteen motion pictures later, and the Marvel Studios IP has earned approximately $16.5 billion at the ticket booth worldwide, but more importantly, it’s also gained a devout, indispensable following.
Now, to commemorate the ten year journey, the company’s hired Tara Bennett and Paul Terry to compile a book titled The First Ten Years: The Definitive Story Behind the Blockbuster Studio, which aims to “give fans an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at the evolution of the studio from a film production arm of a comic book company to the studio that has produced an unparalleled interconnected universe of feature films.”
Although not scheduled to hit store shelves until November later this year, we’ve put together an extensive gallery of behind the scenes images for you to check out in the meantime. These range from every MCU entry, starting with Iron Man all the way up to Avengers: Infinity War. They’re in reverse-chronological order, too, which should help you figure out which film each pic is taken from – if it’s not obvious already.
While the MCU won’t see another chapter grace the silver screen until Ant-Man and the Wasp (July 6th), 2018 has seen the Marvel Studios brainchild haul in an inconceivable $3.03B at the box office worldwide, earned by Black Panther ($1.34B) and Avengers: Infinity War ($1.69B). Undeniably, the Paul Rudd-led blockbuster isn’t the strongest movie to close out a banner year on, but expect the Peyton Reed-directed sequel to contribute significantly, nonetheless.
And after that? Well, Phase 4 is on the horizon but as of yet, details on what Kevin Feige and co. have in store for us have been hard to come by. With an Eternals movie in the works though, not to mention Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, it’s clear that wherever the franchise heads next, things are about to get a lot more cosmic.
