Half of 2018’s Top Ten Movies Are Based on Marvel Characters

Half of the top ten highest-grossing domestic earners for 2018 are inspired by Marvel Comics properties.

Black Panther reigns with $700 million in the United States alone, making it just the third film in history to reach the milestone, behind only Disney’s own Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($936m) and James Cameron’s Avatar ($760m).

In second place is Avengers: Infinity War, which assembled Marvel’s mightiest franchises for a $678 million domestic haul. Taking fifth is Fox’s Deadpool 2 at $318 million, ahead of Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man and the Wasp, ranked seventh with $216 million, and Sony’s Venom, in tenth place at $174 million.

Of the top ten biggest earners worldwide, only Venom has yet to make the list: Infinity War will remain the top film of 2018 with $2.04 billion, ahead of Black Panther‘s $1.34 billion. There the Deadpool sequel comes in sixth with $734m, followed by Ant-Man and the Wasp in seventh place at $622m.

Venom, which now stands at $465m worldwide, will have to top China’s Detective Chinatown 2 ($544m) to enter the top ten, where it would then have to overtake Operation Red Sea ($579m) and Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One ($582m) to take eighth place behind Ant-Man. The first entry in “Sony’s Universe of Marvel Characters,” a connected universe without a Spider-Man, Venom webbed up an $80.2 million opening weekend earlier this month — setting the record for biggest-ever October opening.

Filling out the top ten worldwide is Universal’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom in third place ($1.30 billion), Disney-Pixar’s Incredibles 2 in fourth ($1.23b), and Paramount’s Mission: Impossible — Fallout in fifth ($791m).

Only two 2018 releases have entered the top ten all time worldwide list: Infinity War and Black Panther.

Disney now owns five of the top ten biggest box office hits of all time with The Force Awakens being their biggest earner ever, ranking third with $2.06 billion, behind Cameron’s Avatar ($2.7b) and Titanic ($2.18b).

2012’s The Avengers is in sixth place all-time with $1.51b, followed by its 2015 sequel Age of Ultron, which comes in eighth place with $1.40b. Disney is the only studio to have more than two films in the top ten worldwide list.

Sony Pictures Animation’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the first big screen animated Spider-Man movie, will be the last Marvel-inspired production swinging into theaters in 2018 when it opens in December.

Disney’s Marvel productions are expected to dominate 2019, with the Brie Larson-led Captain Marvel set to launch March 8 followed by Avengers 4 May 3. Spider-Man: Far From Home, financed by Sony Pictures but creatively produced by Marvel Studios, follows July 5.

Other comic book-inspired productions slated for 2019 include the Hellboy reboot and Shazam!, both out in April, latest X-Men entry Dark Phoenix, releasing in June, The New Mutants, out in August, and Joker, releasing in October.