Marvel Cinematic Universe Passes $5 Billion at Worldwide Box Office for 2019

It doesn't take a mathematical genius to figure out that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has had an awesome year. However, fans may not realize to how good the MCU did at the 2019 box office.

There were three installments of the Marvel Cinematic Universe saga released in 2019 - Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame, and Spider-Man: Far From Home (in that order of release). Three Marvel films, which managed to generate over $5 billion at the worldwide box office. Not too shabby.

Here's the breakdown of the MCU's biggest annual earnings yet (expressed in worldwide totals):

1. Avengers: Endgame - $2.795B
2. Captain Marvel - $1.128B
3. Spider-Man: Far From Home - $1.097B

Those three numbers equate to a total of $5.02B, which is, again, an insane amount of money for one franchise to generate to in just one year.

There is a caveat to this, of course: The Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise generated over $5 billion in 2019 - but not all of that money filtered back to Marvel Studios and Disney. Spider-Man: Far From Home was a Sony Pictures production, which means that studio took the profits from that billion-dollar success story. Marvel Studios just helped them finally get over the hump. Not to weep too hard, though: Marvel Studios just had the small accomplishments of launching their first female-led superhero franchise to a billion-dollar debut (Captain Marvel), and followed that up with releasing the highest-grossing movie of all time (Avengers: Endgame). So, suffice to say that Kevin Feige and Co. can breathe easy that they did good by their Disney overlords this year.

What will be interesting to see is how the Marvel Cinematic Universe earnings fare in the Phase 4 era, where major headlining stars like Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans have moved on, and there are no major crossover events or Avengers films to speak of. More to the point: Phase 4 will be interesting some wildly varied concepts from the Marvel Comics Universe into the MCU (Eternals), while also trying to retcon mistakes of the past (Shang-Chi) and take some established solo franchise (Thor, Doctor Strange) into some weird new places (Love & Thunder and In the Multiverse of Madness, respectively).

Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame are now available on home video. Upcoming Marvel Studios projects include Black Widow on May 1, 2020, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier in fall 2020, The Eternals on November 6, 2020, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on February 12, 2021, WandaVision in spring 2021,Loki in spring 2021, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on May 7, 2021, What If? In summer 2021, Hawkeye in fall 2021, and Thor: Love and Thunder on November 5, 2021.