A Definitive Ranking of the Marvel Cinematic Universe Films

With this weekend’s release of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Marvel hit another home run with its fifteenth release in their cinematic universe. The second installment of the Guardians franchise was a smashing success this weekend with a $146 million opening, up 54% from the first film that came out in 2014.

I’ve seen the movie twice now, and I feel relatively confident in saying, recency bias be damned, that it is the best movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe so far. I thought that after the first time I saw it, and the second time only confirmed it.

It got me thinking about how grand an achievement the MCU has been, and how they still haven’t made a movie yet that I disliked.

I decided to rank the 15 movies from the MCU, and before you ask, no Deadpool does not count. Neither do any of the Spider-Man movies to this point, with July 7th’s Spider-Man: Homecoming being underoos’s MCU debut.

The future of the MCU in film remains strong and promising.

The third Thor film, Thor: Ragnarok, joins Spider-Man: Homecoming and Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2. as the MCU’s 2017 films.

2018 brings us a solo Black Panther film directed by Ryan Coogler (Creed), the highly anticipated Avengers: Infinity War, and a sequel to 2015’s Ant-Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp.

2019 finishes out phase three with the debut of Captain Marvel and a sequel to Infinity War, while also beginning phase four with the announced Spider-Man sequel. We also seem to be all but guaranteed a Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 at some point in the future.

These rankings are sure to change with all those coming down the line, but for now, here’s my ranking of the MCU films to date:

(Warning: There are some spoilers ahead for some of the movies if you have not seen them. If you haven’t seen them, why are you reading this, anyway?)

15. The Incredible Hulk

Gross (opening/lifetime): $55 million/$134 million

At the bottom of my rankings is the oft-forgotten film of the MCU, 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, which came out in the summer of 2008 shortly after Iron Man kicked off phase-one.

The Incredible Hulk is often not lumped in with the other movies in the MCU mostly due to the recasting of Bruce Banner from Edward Norton in the standalone film to Mark Ruffalo in The Avengers films.

One of the main problems in The Incredible Hulk was that Edward Norton never quite worked as Banner, which is unfortunate because Norton is a phenomenal actor, and a personal favorite of mine. This role just didn’t suit him. I also really didn’t like Liv Tyler as Banner’s love interest, either.

At the end of the day, The Incredible Hulk is still a movie that I enjoyed, and was a massive improvement over the 2003 disaster directed by Ang Lee. The bad taste that 2003’s Hulk adaptation left in everyone’s mouth most likely adversely affected the gross of this movie as it had the weakest opening weekend and weakest lifetime gross of any of the MCU films to date. It made less over its run than Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 made this weekend.

14. Thor: The Dark World

Gross: $85 million/$206 million

The big problem with 2013’s Thor sequel is the villains, the poorly named dark elves. They just aren’t very compelling bad guys. They are certainly a big step-down from the villain of the first Thor movie, and the first Avengers film, Loki, played masterfully by Tom Hiddleston. Loki actually serves as a good-guy in this film after being devastated from the death of he and Thor’s mother.

Another thing that doesn’t really work, as taboo as it probably is to say, is Natalie Portman as Jane Foster. Portman is a more than capable actress, an Oscar winning one at that for her role in Black Swan, but she seems mostly disinterested in the role at most times.

What does work is Chris Hemsworth as Thor once again as that gave further proof that he was perfectly cast as the god of Thunder.

The action in this movie was also good with a lot of impressive visuals to boot.

While we are on the subject of Thor, the trailer for Ragnarok looks outstanding and has the potential to be the top Thor movie to date.

13. Iron Man 2

Gross: $128 million/$312 million

When I first saw Iron Man 2, I can’t say that I wasn’t disappointed because it didn’t quite live up to the ridiculous expectations that were bestowed upon it after Iron Man in 2008. That isn’t fair to Iron Man 2, because not everything can be as good, or as important, as the first Iron Man.

Iron Man 2 is important in its own right, however, as it introduced Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow, and Don Cheadle took over as Rhodey in place of Terrence Howard.  

Speaking of Black Widow, we are way overdue for a standalone Black Widow film starring Johansson. She is a very interesting character played by an A-list actress. I still don’t understand why this hasn’t been done or isn’t even in the works. At this point, the odds of this actually happening seem to be decreasing by the day.

I disliked Iron Man 2 the first time I saw it, but I’ve gone back and watched it a couple times since then and enjoyed it each time.

The post-credits scene for Iron Man 2 gave us our first indication that Thor was going to be joining the MCU with Agent Coulson reporting to Nick Fury that they had found “it”, and the camera panned to Thor’s Hammer implanted into the ground in the desert.

12. Doctor Strange

Gross: $85 million/$232 million

It says a lot for the MCU that Doctor Strange, a movie I liked quite a bit, is this close to the bottom of my list.

A big positive for the Marvel films is how well they have cast the lead roles, and Benedict Cumberbatch is certainly no exception as Doctor Stephen Strange. I believe Doctor Strange’s first mention in the MCU is in Captain America: The Winter Soldier when Captain, Falcon, and Black Widow are interrogating Jasper Sitwell on a rooftop.

Doctor Strange is a stunning visual experience with several impressive performances from Cumberbatch as the titular character, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Mordo, and Mads Mikkelsen as the main antagonist, Kaecillius.

Tilda Swinton is more than capable as The Ancient One, but the movie did receive some negative attention for the whitewashing of that character.

I also don’t think they gave Rachel McAdams quite enough to do either, which was a bit of a disappointment.

All in all, though, Doctor Strange is a strong offering in the MCU.

11. Ant-Man

Gross: $57 million/$180 million

If I’m being honest, I thought Ant-Man was going to be where the MCU finally had a failure. Everything seemed to be setting this film up to fail, from the director, Peyton Reed, who was best known for Bring it On and Yes Man to Paul Rudd being cast as the leading man Scott Lang/Ant-Man.

I knew little about Ant-Man coming in, but Paul Rudd being cast as a superhero? I just couldn’t see it, as much as I liked Paul Rudd in other movies.

I was very happy to be wrong when I saw Ant-Man when it was released. Paul Rudd was perfectly cast as Lang, which shouldn’t have been a surprise considering how spot-on Marvel has been with casting leads.

Evangeline Lilly is strong in a supporting role as Hope van Dyne, and her future in the franchise seems bright with the next Ant-Man movie having her name in the title.

Ant-Man proved to me that Marvel could not lose.

10. Thor

Gross: $65 million/$181 million

Thor was the fourth film of the MCU and followed through on the promise from the post-credits scene in Iron Man 2. In this film, Thor was banished to Earth by Odin to learn some humility, and had his hammer ripped away from him until he was worthy of it.

There’s a lot of good humor in this movie as Thor struggles to adapt to Earth’s culture and struggles to regain his power.

As stated above, it is hard to overstate just how perfect Chris Hemsworth is for the part of Thor. I’ve talked a lot already about the perfect casting by Marvel, but with Hemsworth as Thor, along with several others, they have become the characters that they played.

It’s hard to imagine anyone else playing Thor; anyone other than Robert Downey Jr. playing Iron Man; anyone other than Chris Evans playing Captain America; anyone other than Samuel L. Jackson playing Nick Fury; and so on and so forth. I’m sure the same will be said for some of the newer characters like Doctor Strange, Ant-Man, Black Panther, etc. one day.

9. Captain America: The First Avenger

Gross: $65 million/$176 million

I’m guessing a lot of Marvel fans would have this one ranked a bit higher than me. I certainly don’t dislike the debut of Captain America in the MCU, but I do think it was the weakest offering of the standalone Captain America films.

Captain America certainly has heart, and Chris Evans fits the role like a glove.

The transformation Evans makes in the film from the young, puny Steve Rogers to the sturdy, strapping Captain America is a stunning visual.

Evans completely rehabilitates himself in his second-chance in a big-budget superhero franchise after the fledgling Fantastic Four films. A lot of people, myself included, were unjustly worried about him in the role, but one thing was clear from the jump:

Chris Evans IS Captain America.  

8. Avengers: Age of Ultron

Gross: $191 million/$459 million

I’ve never understood the backlash that Age of Ultron got upon its release. A good many people, including several that I know, completely disliked the movie for reasons that I really don’t understand.

The squabbling between Iron Man and Captain America sets up the impending Civil War movie a year later. The on-screen chemistry between the two is fantastic, even when they are in disagreement.

James Spader is strong as Ultron and the Maximoff twins, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, have nice redemptive arcs.

We also got Vision, who is supremely cool. The scene in which he wields Thor’s hammer is awe-inspiring, from the beginning of his speech to him grabbing the hammer and handing it to Thor. That scene was set up beautifully earlier in the film when many of the other Avengers attempt, unsuccessfully, to pick up the hammer at a party.

One of my favorite potential post-credit or pre-movie scene possibilities is one I read where Stan Lee makes a cameo in a Thor movie or an Avengers movie, and he is a janitor cleaning Thor’s home, and while no one is looking, and unbeknownst to even Stan Lee to what he was actually doing, he picks up Thor’s hammer to dust underneath it and then sets it back down.

This film is also a massive win for Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, making light of his also-ran Avenger status throughout. It seemed at times to be an ode to the character, and I thought for sure that Hawkeye wasn’t going to make it to the end of the movie, but thankfully he does.

I don’t get people who didn’t like this movie.

7. Guardians of the Galaxy

Gross: $94 million/$333 million

If I’m being honest, the first time I saw a trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy, I had no interest in watching the movie. I thought it was a spoof, and I guess in ways it is a spoof; it is certainly an irreverent comedy, but it’s apparently very true to the source material.

Guardians felt like a gamble for Marvel, and it was, but with the successes they had leading up to this movie, it was a worthwhile risk.

Still, think about it for a second: A movie led by a guy who was known as a secondary character on a sitcom, the lovable loser of that show; a talking racoon and his best friend, a tree who can only say “I am Groot”; and a character played by a former pro wrestler. All of this helmed by a guy with very little directorial credits to his name.

It also opened at the beginning of August, which is typically the time of year that studios throw their shit against the wall and hope something sticks.

It screamed disaster to me, and I avoided seeing it as early as I’ve seen most of the others. That was until enough people I trusted told me it was fantastic and I finally broke down and went to see it. And boy was I glad I did. It’s an outstanding movie with all the things I thought were negative ending up being demonstrative positives; I literally could not believe how good Dave Bautista is as Drax.

I honestly feel a little bad about ranking it this low, but that just gives further proof to how good these movies have been.

6. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Gross: $95 million/$259 million

This movie is virtually interchangeable with Civil War to me, and I flip-flopped back-and-forth over which to have first. Recency bias gives the edge to Civil War, but I wouldn’t be shocked down the line if I changed my mind again. The Winter Soldier is a terrific offering from the MCU.

Chris Evans is at his best as Captain, Samuel L. Jackson gets good screen time as Nick Fury, Johansson is back as Black Widow, and her on-screen chemistry with Evans continued to be a hit, and Anthony Mackie gives a strong performance as Falcon, a Rhodey to Captain’s Iron Man.

All of that is great, but what makes the movie is the strength of the villain, this time The Winter Soldier aka Steve Rogers’s long lost pal Bucky Barnes, played by Sebastian Stan.

The Winter Soldier is one of the most compelling bad guys in the MCU, probably second only to Tom Hiddleston’s Loki for me. I’m guessing each will drop a spot when Thanos comes to town in Infinity War.

Just like the first one, this film has a lot of heart, and shows Captain America’s willingness to sacrifice himself for his friends and the greater good. That has been a theme throughout these films, which leads me to believe that Rogers might not make it through Infinity War. It’s hard to imagine Marvel would want to get rid of such a strong character, though.

5. Captain America: Civil War

Gross: $179 million/$408 million

Captain America: Civil War is an Avengers movie in everything but the name, with all of our favorite Marvel heroes present, save for Hulk and Thor, who would’ve stacked the deck in one side’s favor too much to be included. I’m guessing the events for Thor: Ragnarok will be set during the same time as Civil War so as to explain the absence of the two.

We were introduced to Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther, and Spider-Man was brought into the MCU after Marvel reacquired the rights from Sony. Daniel Bruhl’s Zemo isn’t that strong of a villain, but he doesn’t have to be with either Tony Stark or Steve Rogers functioning in that role, depending on whose side you land on. (If you weren’t team Iron Man then I’m guessing you’re the police.)

It’s got wonderful action sequences to go along with your typical humor that we’ve all come to expect from these types of movies.

Civil War was a strong beginning to Marvel’s phase three.

4. Iron Man 3

Gross: $174 million/$409 million

After a bit of a disappointing sequel, the Iron Man franchise came back with a fury with Iron Man 3 in 2013. It was also a smashing success, making more money along its run than any other standalone film in the universe.

Director Shane Black knows how to pull the best out of Robert Downey Jr.’s natural wit and charisma, as evidenced by their pairing in 2005’s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

Downey certainly owed a lot to Black after Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, which was a critically acclaimed movie, if a bit of a box office disappointment. It launched Downey back into the mainstream, and made him a real contender for the part of Tony Stark.

I highly recommend Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, by the way, as well as Black’s most recent film, 2016’s The Nice Guys starring Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe.

Iron Man 3 pairs a lot of wit and a lot of charm to go along with a lot of strong action sequences.

I’ll readily admit that the Mandarin isn’t that strong of a character, and is apparently a betrayal of the source material, but I think Guy Pearce more than makes up for that as Aldrich Killian.

We also got a breakout performance from Ty Simpkins, who plays Harley Keener, Tony Stark’s child side-kick.

Just like every movie, there’s a percentage of people who disliked this one, but those people are idiots.

3. The Avengers

Gross: $207 million/$623 million)

The culmination of all their phase-one material, The Avengers was a grand achievement for Marvel. It smashed box office records when it came out in 2012.

It pulled together all of our favorite heroes, which all thus far had successful standalone films of their own. Both Iron Man films had been major hits, The Incredible Hulk, while recast for The Avengers, had been completely rehabilitated, and Thor and Captain America had been big successes in their own right, while also being cast perfectly.

The Avengers also gave us a second film with Loki as the main antagonist, with Tom Hiddleston stealing the show as Thor’s brother once again.

Joss Whedon directed this film brilliantly, pulling together a lot of alpha actors/characters, none of which stepped on the toes of any other. They all played very well together.

Whedon was a bit of an unknown as a director before The Avengers, but he did have some impressive writing credits on his resume, including Toy Story.

I could watch Hulk slam Loki back and forth on loop for the rest of my life, by the way.

2. Iron Man

Gross: $98 million/$318 million

As silly as it seems now, there was a great bit of concern about Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man. He’s a superstar now, but Iron Man is what made him such. Robert Downy Jr. is Iron Man, and recasting him at any point down the line is going to be a difficult, if not impossible, endeavor.

Jon Favreau was the director here, and while he is well known and considered a big-time Hollywood director now, his pre-Iron Man directorial highlights were Elf and Zathura, neither of which inspired confidence in his ability to helm a summer blockbuster.

Iron Man launched the MCU, and it’s safe to say that if it flopped, the franchise would look very differently it does today. We might have still gotten a few of the films down the line, and it’s possible that one of them would’ve been a big enough hit to launch something similar to what we have now.

I think we may see something similar to that with DC after Batman v. Superman, while a monetary success, was a critical disappointment, and I haven’t met anyone who actually thought the movie was good. I suspect November’s Justice League will decide the fate of that particular cinematic universe.

1. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

Gross: $146 million/tbd

It’s possible that I change my mind at some point, but Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is at the top for me at this moment in time. Some will say it’s recency bias, and I’m sure that plays a part, but it’s smart, it’s hilarious, and it has as much heart as any film in the MCU.

All our favorite characters are back, with the addition of Baby Groot, who I suspect stores will not be able to keep enough merchandise of the adorable Guardian between now and the holidays.

Dave Bautista is even better as Drax the second time around, and we get a nice redemptive arc for Yondu (played wonderfully by Michael Rooker) and Nebula. It also serves to further set-up the impending showdown between the Avengers and Thanos.

Kurt Russell plays Ego, Peter Quill’s long-lost father, who turns out to be the main antagonist of the film, and he is outstanding as such. Marvel used their impressive CGI talents again to give us young Kurt Russell, like they had previously with Robert Downey Jr. in Civil War last year.

All in all, the second volume of the Guardians franchise, while boasting another outstanding soundtrack, has everything you want in a superhero film, and is as good as it gets in the MCU.

I’m greatly looking forward to Marvel’s attempts to top this in the future. They have my full faith, trust, and confidence going forward.