Deadpool & Wolverine as a film has allowed both titular heroes to reach the third and fourth spot in the total box office gross for each Marvel character, replacing Iron Man. Notably, for Deadpool, this was done with only three movies, resulting in an average of $865 million gross per film for the hero. This is higher than Thor’s $676 million per film and is an especially incredible achievement for an R-rated franchise. While Spider-Man has still made more money overall as one of Marvel’s most popular characters, future films may allow Deadpool to overtake this spot.
The table:
| Titular Marvel Character | Total Box Office |
|---|---|
| Spider-Man | $3,920,121,775 |
| Thor | $2,705,339,993 |
| Deadpool | $2,597,841,443 |
| Wolverine | $2,435,016,309 |
| Iron Man | $2,421,720,208 |
| Captain America | $2,236,871,251 |
| Black Panther | $2,188,142,628 |
| Doctor Strange | $1,628,568,160 |
| Ant-Man | $1,605,638,412 |
| Captain Marvel | $1,329,282,344 |
| The Wasp | $1,086,779,963 |
| Hulk | $510,605,538 |
Didn’t know Thor was that high.
Awkwardness in the comparison aside (release timing and compensating for inflation??) … I think think this highlights that part of the MCU’s problem is basically a lack of diversity and/or not knowing how to land other flavours/vibes without chocking them (where multiverse of madness strikes me as a good example).
People loved to hate Eternals, and I personally thought that was a death sentence for the MCU, as sincerely exploring different vibes was necessary where some (including myself) were totally down for what Eternals was doing and it kinda kept me plugged in. That the general reaction to it was “lets not do that again” kinda turned me off of the MCU. I imagine there’s been a similar-ish dynamic with Deadpool (??) … and that it’s paid off.
Another example might be the point in time when WandaVision and Loki S1 had just come out (mid 2021) … my memory is that that kept some people plugged in and interested in what the MCU could do for them … but then the MCU AFAICT kinda threw that investment away and then got some bad luck with its Kang casting.
Loki and wandvision was kinda of the end of the paved road for marvel. Then they had the string of meh stuff. It’s too bad Kang didn’t work out, personally I really like the character(s). But if it tones down the multiverse crap then I’m happy.
Not sure what you mean by “paved road”. Either way, I’m not sure what they did with those two shows was by any means an obvious next step, which is why I think many appreciated them.
I meant it got bumpy after that. They were good shows.