[Editor’s note: This list was published in May 2023. It has since been updated with “Deadpool and Wolverine.”] Love it or hate it, nobody who wants to participate in pop culture can ignore the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
As the internet and the streaming boom continue to divide the entertainment industry into smaller niche fragments, superhero tentpole movies are the closest thing we still have to a monoculture. That cultural dominance has allowed Marvel Studios to rope an increasingly large percentage of Hollywood’s A-list actors (and quite a few of its best directors) into its ever-expanding universe. Years of billion dollar box office receipts and endless discourse about its stranglehold on the film industry make it easy to forget what a risky proposition the MCU was when it launched with “Iron Man” in 2008.
Superhero movies without Batman, Superman, or Spider-Man were considered box office gambles at the time, and many entertainment industry observers doubted that audiences would continue to show up for so many interlocking films without getting fatigued. On top of all that, the entire project was launched with an action movie directed by the guy from “Swingers” whose leading man had suffered quite a bit of damage to his reputation. But you know how the rest of the story goes.
Even if Marvel’s cultural relevance has declined ever-so-slightly from the days of the biggest “Avengers” movies, Kevin Feige and his team have built a machine that’s constant.