Top 20 Highest Grossing Superhero Movies

With Captain America: Civil War finally out and taking the world’s box-office by storm we have a look at the 20 highest grossing superhero movies at the worldwide box-office.

Fans of the superhero genre will probably be able to guess which film is the highest grossing but they may not know how many Marvel films are in the top 20. With both DC and Marvel going head-to-head, where will Civil War fit in and how does it compare to the other films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe series? Seeing what other films have grossed will help with any predictions.

Box-office figures are from Box Office Mojo.

2008’s Iron Man was the first time we saw Robert Downey Jr. as the billionaire philanthropist turned superhero. The film took $585,174,222 at the worldwide box office, marking the start of what we now call the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Iron Man has gone on to appear in 5 subsequent superhero films.

The second Iron Man film took $623,933,331 at the box-office, confirming the success of the first Iron Man film. It isn’t the best in the series but it made enough money to warrant a sequel and introduction of other superheroes.

Thor was the second hero to be introduced to the masses in Phase One. The first Thor film was released in 2011 and made just under $450 million – enough to warrant a sequel. The Dark World, the second Thor film, was released in 2013 and took $644,602,516 worldwide, showing the increasing popularity of Marvel’s films.

Man of Steel was the first time we saw Henry Cavill’s Superman and the the introduction to the world before Batman vs Superman. Reception was mixed but the $668,045,518 it took worldwide ensured the story would continue.

Civil War has only been in theatres a matter of days but including the overseas taking, it has take an estimated $678,391,000 at the time of writing. With appearances from Spider-Man as well as a host of other Avengers, Civil War is more than just a Captain America film.

2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was the second and final appearance of Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker. A lot of people enjoyed the central characters but it took $708,982,323 at the box office worldwide, which is less that the first film.

One of the strongest films in the MCU, Winter Soldier took $714,421,503 at the worldwide box-office. It took twice as much as the first solo Captain America film, confirming that the series of films was going from strength to strength.

Days of Future Past is by far the highest grossing X-Men film. Well received critically and commercially, it brought X-Men back to masses. It took $747,862,775 worldwide and Apocalypse is out later this summer.

The Amazing Spider-Man is one of those rare times when the first film makes more than the sequel. At $757,930,663, it made 50 million dollars more than the second outing of Garfield’s Spider-Man. That version of Spider-Man won’t be seen again but we’ll be seeing Spidey again very soon.

Deadpool is by far the highest grossing R rated superhero film and had one of the smallest budgets. Ryan Reynolds is perfect as the foul-mouthed vigilant, and after making $761,223,790 worldwide, there will certainly be a sequel.