Endgameto the End Times:How Did the Marvel UniverseDecline so Greatly?
For the past 17 years, no movie franchise has done what the Marvel Cinematic Universe has done. The movies have broken records left and right and fans have never gotten tired of them, until now. Why has the franchise decreased within the past few years, and how do the days of mediocre movies come to an end to get back to the glory it once was? The Marvel Cinematic Universe, or the MCU as it is more commonly known, began in 2008 with Robert Downey Jr.’sIronman1. Since then, over 30 movies have been released between 5 phases2. Of course, the most popular were released in 2018 and 2019, beingAvengers: Infinity WarandAvengers: Endgame.Both are ranked in thetop 10 highest-grossing movies in history, placing number 2 and 6 respectively3. After these releases, one more movie was put out, ending the third phase of the franchise with a new type of media being introduced in TV shows set to release the following year. This did not end up happening, and instead, for the first time since its beginnings, no new media was released due to COVID-19. 2021 brought around the first wave of TV shows, which is considered the beginning of the end. There are a few reasons as to why this may be. The first is the pace at which both TV shows and movies were coming out. Because of a one-episode-a-week release schedule, almost every week in 2021 had some sort of Marvel content released with a total of 6 shows and 4 movies. Before, the highest number of releases each year were in 2017, 2018, and 2019 with 3 each. Another problem with releasing this much stuff is that with each phase, the number of movies was less than what was produced in a whole year in 2021. Phase 3 contained 9 over 4 years, and Phases 1 and 2 each had 6 movies over 4 years. This number may have overwhelmed viewers or made general audiences annoyed by the number and constant talk in the media. 1
ttps://www.space.com/marvel-movies-in-order h https://www.imdb.com/list/ls003096970/ 3 https://www.boxofficemojo.com/chart/top_lifetime_gross/?area=XWW 2