I, alongside thousands of other people, flocked to the movie theater on Friday, April 26 to watch "Avengers: Endgame," the finale in what feels like a movie story arc that's been around for the majority of our lives. Not to get into too many minute details, but "Endgame" finds a way to wrap everything up really nicely, for me at least, in a way that I felt was respectful of every major character development that we as audiences have watched for a decade at most.
And as I walked out of the movie theater that night, without any credit scenes so don't waste your time, I thought about how momentous of a feat it was that Marvel Studios pulled off. Imagine taking 22 different movies, stretching them out over a 10-year period each with their own nuances and then tying it all together neatly at the end and 99% of the people who saw it love it and give it rave reviews.
Marvel not only pulled a great storytelling feat, but they made each movie really, really good. Marvel Studios has made at least $20 billion worldwide over the last 10 years from the Marvel cinematic universe. For context, 7 Marvel movies are on the Top 50 list for the highest-grossing movies of all time.
The list of each individual movie's total grossing is ridiculous to look at. Even more ridiculous than that is the list of records that Endgame broke by itself. Endgame broke the record for the highest grossing opening at $1.2 billion. The previous record was helped by themselves when "Avengers: Infinity War" grossed $640 million for its opening. Nearly every Marvel movie is critically acclaimed and I think one of the most impressive things the MCU was able to achieve was making superhero movies culturally relevant and something that the entire world enjoyed and anticipated coming out.
You have to remember just how bad superhero movies were pre-2008. When "The Dark Knight" came out in July of 2008, it felt like the exception to the rule. Marvel proved that dedication to good storytelling and excellent cinematography would deliver not only excellent movies but would result in one of the most dedicated fanbases the world has probably ever seen.
Even after "Endgame," Marvel Studios has been very public that the MCU will continue to expand and include heroes and story arcs from Stan Lee's world. In the meantime, we'll just have to wait and see what they have in store for us. Whatever it might be, I have no doubt in my mind that they'll be amazing. But if you haven't, do yourself a favor and see "Endgame."
