Last Updated: January 17, 2020

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been dominating pop culture for the past decade - building a sprawling superhero universe that spans movies and TV shows. With 23 MCU movies released so far, and plenty more already planned, it can be difficult to keep track of all the different superheroes and their respective franchises and team-ups. To help fans out, here’s our breakdown of every Marvel movie released so far (in chronological order).

In addition to a breakdown of the films, we’re also including release info and the final global box office total (unadjusted for inflation). Previously, we put together a complete MCU Movie & TV viewing guide; however, our new breakdown is the easiest way to keep track of all the movies, characters, and storylines that Marvel Studios has released in the ten-plus years they’ve been building a shared universe.

Iron Man

  • Director: Jon Favreau Release Date: May 2, 2008 Box Office: $585.2 million

In many ways, Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark is the face of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He made his debut in the first ever MCU movie, and Tony’s journey from selfish billionaire to flawed superhero has in many ways become the blueprint for MCU origin stories. Jon Favreau’s Iron Man received rave reviews and delighted comic book fans, especially when the post-credits scene teased the eventual arrival of the Avengers.

The Incredible Hulk

  • Director: Louis Leterrier Release Date: June 13, 2008 Box Office: $263.4 million

You’d be forgiven for not realizing that Louis Letterier’s The Incredible Hulk is an MCU movie. It was the first and only MCU entry to be distributed by Universal Pictures, who still hold the Hulk solo movie rights (which is why Hulk has since only appeared in team-ups and guest spots). Bruce Banner actor Edward Norton was recast with Mark Ruffalo when Hulk returned in The Avengers, and Ruffalo has held the role ever since. Though plenty of fans enjoyed The Incredible Hulk, it remains the least successful MCU movie financially, and received mixed reviews from critics.

Iron Man 2

  • Director: Jon Favreau Release Date: May 7, 2010 Box Office: $623.9 million

Iron Man 2 is notable for including the first appearance of Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff a.k.a. Black Widow, and also the first appearance of Don Cheadle as James “Rhodey” Rhodes (played by Terrence Howard in Iron Man). It starred Mickey Rourke as Ivan Vanko, the first in a long line of MCU villains whose main motivation was getting revenge upon Tony Stark. Sam Rockwell played Justin Hammer, a rival weapons manufacturer who eventually teams up with Vanko. 

Thor

  • Director: Kenneth Branagh Release Date: May 6, 2011 Box Office: $449.3 million

In the fourth MCU movie, little-known Australian actor Chris Hemsworth beamed down from Asgard to steal hearts (and smash cups), with his infectious grin and blond locks. True to the Tony Stark formula, Thor Odinson is a powerful and arrogant figure who is brought low, and learns a few important life lessons on his path to becoming a superhero. Thor introduced Natalie Portman as Jane Foster, in the start of a sweeping romance that would eventually end in an off-screen break-up. It also included the first appearance of Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, as well as debuting fan-favorite villain Loki (Tom Hiddleston).

Captain America: The First Avenger

  • Director: Joe Johnston Release Date: July 22, 2011 Box Office: $370.6 million

After four present-day movies, Marvel went back in time to World War II and introduced a skinny kid called Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), who was determined to fight for his country despite being physically unfit to do so. Fortune shone down on Steve in the form of a super-soldier serum, which granted him incredible strength, speed, and agility, but left his good heart unchanged. The First Avenger also saw the first appearance of Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, who would later return as the Winter Soldier. Meanwhile, Steve’s love interest Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) went on to star in her own TV show. The movie also featured the first of the Infinity Stones: the Space Stone, which is contained in a vessel called the Tesseract.

The Avengers

  • Director: Joss Whedon Release Date: May 4, 2012 Box Office: $1.519 billion

The crowning glory of the MCU’s Phase One, The Avengers brought together every superhero that had been introduced in previous entries for a massive battle against Loki and his Chitauri army. It also marked the first appearance (in a mid-credits scene) of cosmic baddie Thanos (Josh Brolin). The Avengers crystallized the cinematic universe model and, due to its success, has been perhaps the most influential movie event of the past decade. In the wake of The Avengers, everyone wanted to get in on the cinematic universe game: Warner Bros. announced a slate of connected DC movies; Universal put together plans for a shared monster universe; and Legendary Pictures planned another “MonsterVerse” that would bring together behemoths like Godzilla and King Kong.

Iron Man 3

  • Director: Shane Black Release Date: May 3, 2015 Box Office: $1.214 billion

Marvel kicked off Phase Two with a movie that remains the most controversial entry in the MCU. Many comic book fans were outraged by a mid-movie twist that, they felt, did a great disservice to an iconic Iron Man villain. Beyond the audience of hardcore fans, however, Iron Man 3 was generally quite well received, with critics praising its blend of action and comedy. It created a connective tissue between Phase One and Phase Two by showing Tony Stark struggling to deal with the lingering trauma from the Battle of New York - a character arc that would continue to play out in Phase Two’s team-up movie, Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Thor: The Dark World

  • Director: Alan Taylor Release Date: November 8, 2013 Box Office: $644.6 million

Thor: The Dark World had a somewhat difficult road to the big screen. Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins was officially attached to the project for two months before she parted ways with Marvel, citing creative differences. Game of Thrones director Alan Taylor was then hired to direct, but difficulties during production culminated in Joss Whedon being flown in to work on certain scenes. Thor: The Dark World was a commercial success, far outperforming the first movie at the box office, but is generally regarded as one of the weaker entries in the MCU. It featured Christopher Eccleston as the villain, Malekith, and also introduced one of the five Infinity Stones: the Aether, or Reality Stone.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

  • Directors: Anthony and Joe Russo Release Date: April 4, 2014 Box Office: $714.3 million

Captain America’s second solo outing was the first MCU movie directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, and its critical and commercial success led to the duo being handed the reins to three major team-up movies: Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers 4. The Winter Soldier saw Steve Rogers reunited with his old friend Bucky Barnes, who had been put in cryogenic stasis by Hydra and brainwashed into carrying out terrible deeds. The movie also introduced Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson a.k.a. Falcon, who (along with Black Widow) was one of Steve’s only allies while he was on the run from a Hydra-corrupted SHIELD, and who would later go on to join the Avengers.

Guardians of the Galaxy

  • Director: James Gunn Release Date: August 1, 2014 Box Office: $773.3 million

After a team-up movie and three sequels, Marvel took what many saw as a big risk with Guardians of the Galaxy. The movie featured a superhero team that basically no one outside of comic book circles had heard of, which included a talking raccoon and a sentient alien tree who could only say “I am Groot.” It should have been too weird to work, but in the end its weirdness was exactly what made it work (well, that and an awesome soundtrack). Guardians of the Galaxy is also notable for giving the first proper, detailed explanation of what the Infinity Stones are and where they came from, as well as introducing the Power Stone.

Avengers: Age of Ultron

  • Director: Joss Whedon Release Date: May 1, 2015 Box Office: $1.405 billion

The hype train for Avengers: Age of Ultron first got rolling with a Comic-Con trailer that featured a haunting, slowed-down take on the song “There Are No Strings On Me,” from Pinocchio. The movie’s titular villain, voiced by James Spader, was created by Tony Stark as an AI peacekeeping program, but since he was built using code from the Mind Stone, Ultron quickly developed a mind of his own. Age of Ultron introduced two new Avengers: Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) started out as a villain but ultimately switched sides, while Paul Bettany graduated from a voice-acting role as Tony’s AI butler JARVIS to the role of Vision, a powerful android with an Infinity Stone in his forehead.

Ant-Man

  • Director: Peyton Reed Release Date: July 17, 2015 Box Office: $518.3 million

Ant-Man was almost a decade in the making. Development began in 2006, and from then until pre-production began in 2013, Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz) was attached to direct. It came as a shock, then, when in 2014 - just a few short months before filming began - Wright and Marvel announced that they were parting ways, citing creative differences. Peyton Reed (Bring It On) took over the movie, and Paul Rudd made his debut as thief-turned-superhero Scott Lang. Evangeline Lilly also debuted as Hope van Dyne, daughter of the original Ant-Man (Michael Douglas), and the movie’s mid-credits scene revealed that she would return as a superhero in her own right - inheriting the mantle of Wasp from her mother. Ant-Man concluded Phase Two of the MCU.

Captain America: Civil War

  • Directors: Anthony and Joe Russo Release Date: May 6, 2016 Box Office: $1.153 billion

Effectively serving as The Avengers 2.5, Civil War was both a team-up and a break-up movie, with a marketing campaign based around pitting “Team Cap” against “Team Iron Man.” The rift began with the Sokovia Accords, a United Nations mandate that the Avengers would no longer rush into crisis situations without permission. Tony Stark, still wracked with guilt over his part in the destruction wrought by Ultron, pushed for superheroes to be regulated, while Steve Rogers argued that they needed to be able to help people without waiting for a green light. The movie ended with several of the Avengers on the run, having been broken out of prison by Captain America, and Tony left largely isolated. It also served to introduce Tom Holland’s Peter Parker to the MCU, after Marvel and Sony arranged to partner up on the Spider-Man franchise.

Doctor Strange

  • Director: Scott Derrickson Release Date: November 4, 2016 Box Office: $677 million

Boasting trippy visuals and the first introduction to the mystical side of the Marvel universe, Doctor Strange starred Benedict Cumberbatch as an arrogant surgeon whose career is abruptly derailed by a car accident that cripples his hands. After exhausting all surgical treatments (and emptying his savings in the process), Stephen Strange travelled to Nepal in search of a rumored miracle cure, and instead found the training grounds of Kamar-Taj, where he trained in the mystical arts. By the end of the movie, Doctor Strange has been promoted to the Master of the New York Sanctum - one of three mystical hotspots on Earth that protect that planet from harm. The movie also introduced another Infinity Stone: the Time Stone, which powers the mystical artifact known as the Eye of Agamotto.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

  • Director: James Gunn Release Date: May 5, 2017 Box Office: $863 million

The ragtag team of cosmic protectors returned for a second outing in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (so-called because of the franchise’s mix-tape soundtracks). With a strong emphasis on the nature of family, this sequel saw Star-Lord reunited with his father, Ego the Living Planet (Kurt Russell), and also expanded the team with Ego’s assistant, Mantis, joining the Guardians at the end of the movie. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was an even bigger success than the first movie, and while reviews were slightly more mixed, a lot of people were moved by the very personal and often emotional tone of the sequel - especially when director James Gunn deployed Cat Stevens’ “Father and Son” in a certain scene.

Spider-Man: Homecoming

  • Director: Jon Watts Release Date: July 7, 2017 Box Office: $880 million

Given that most of the Avengers are in their thirties or forties (or nineties - looking at you, Steve), Peter Parker stands out from the crowd as the MCU’s first kid superhero. While previous movie versions of Spider-Man have either had Peter graduate early on in the first movie (Tobey Maguire version), or at the end of the first movie (Andrew Garfield version), Homecoming embraced the fact that Peter is still very young and probably not mature enough to be running around in a super-suit with an “Instant Kill” mode. Watts’ film was, at its core, a coming-of-age story about a fledgling superhero letting go of his need for mentor approval and learning to stand on his own two feet.

Thor: Raganarok

  • Director: Taika Waititi Release Date: November 3, 2017 Box Office: $853 million

Thor, who shouldered a lot of the comic relief moments in The Avengers, went all-out comedy in his third solo outing, which was helmed by beloved Kiwi indie director Taika Waititi (What We Do in the Shadows). Hulk came along for the ride, finally re-emerging after his departure at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron, which had carried him all the way to the junker planet of Sakaar - where a collection of wormholes drops detritus from all over the galaxy. Sakaar is ruled over by the flamboyant Grandmaster (played by Jeff Goldblum at his Jeff Goldblum-est), and Thor and Loki end up there after an ill-fated fight with their long-lost older sister, Hela (Cate Blanchett). Despite the fact that the movie’s title refers to the Nordic apocalypse, Ragnarok is a pretty light-hearted affair, with much of the movie’s runtime dedicated to Thor’s efforts to free himself from Sakaar and get back to Asgard.

Black Panther

  • Director: Ryan Coogler Release Date: February 16, 2018 Box Office: $1.346 billion

Black Panther was easily the longest MCU movie in the making. First announced way back in 2005 as one of ten planned Marvel movies, on a list that included movies that did get made (Avengers, Captain America, Doctor Strange and Ant-Man) and also several movies that didn’t (Cloak and Dagger, Nick Fury, Power Pack, Shang-Chi, and a solo Hawkeye movie). The character finally made his big screen debut in Captain America: Civil War, with Chadwick Boseman playing the prince-turned-superhero, T’Challa, before taking center stage in his own explosively successful solo movie that went on to earn an Oscar nomination for Best Picture.

Avengers: Infinity War

  • Directors: Anthony and Joe Russo Release Date: April 27, 2018 Box Office: $2.048 billion

From the moment it was announced, it was clear that Marvel Studios’ two-part climax to what would be come to be dubbed The Infinity Saga would be special. However, what Avengers: Infinity War ended up being was a success beyond just about anything released up to that point. Featuring an enormous line-up of Marvel heroes, and the MCU’s best villain to date in Thanos, Infinity War set the stage for an epic final showdown with an ending that still drops fans’ jaws in retrospect.

Ant-Man and the Wasp

  • Director: Peyton Reed Release Date: July 6, 2018 Box Office: $623 million

An entertaining diversion for Marvel fans after the heartbreaking of Infinity War, Ant-Man and the Wasp gave moviegoers more of Paul Rudd’s wisecracking superhero, this time officially alongside Evangeline Lilly’s modern version of The Wasp. This sequel’s further exploration of the quantum realm and the weird way time works there also nicely set the stage for what to was to come in 2019’s MCU magnum opus.

Captain Marvel

  • Directors: Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck Release Date: March 8, 2019 Box Office: $1.129 billion

Captain Marvel served to introduce perhaps the MCU’s most powerful hero in Carol Danvers, while also taking Marvel fans back to the 1990s, and revealing how Nick Fury lost his eye. Brie Larson is a delight in the lead role, and instantly became a fan-favorite addition to the MCU in the eyes of many. While many were surprised just how small a role she played in the MCU’s next film, Captain Marvel’s solo debut was still a memorable adventure.

Avengers: Endgame

  • Directors: Anthony and Joe Russo Release Date: April 26, 2019 Box Office: $2.797 billion

Literally the biggest movie of all time, Avengers: Endgame smashed through box office records, and right into the hearts of Marvel fans the world over. The Russo Brothers not only managed to craft a worthy follow-up to the nearly universally praised Infinity War, but did so while cramming in even more characters. Endgame also marked the end of an era, killing off Iron Man and sending Captain America off into retirement.

Spider-Man: Far From Home

  • Director: Jon Watts Release Date: July 2, 2019 Box Office: $1.131 billion

Following up Avengers: Endgame was a tall order, but Marvel Studios left the job to their friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Far From Home sees Peter head overseas for a class trip, only to encounter an incredibly obvious heel turn by Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio. Anticlimactic reveal aside, Mysterio was a delightful villain, and the sequel’s post-credits scenes set up an interesting new reality for Peter Parker in the MCU.

More: Every Upcoming Marvel Movie (2020 - 2022)