Marvel Had an Unprecedentedly Bad Year, Doing Something That’s Only Happened Twice in the History of the MCU

During its record-breaking opening weekend, Zootopia 2’s success sparked some unintended consequences for other studios under Disney’s control. Once the latest Disney sequel cracked Box Office Mojo’s Top 10 in Worldwide Box Office for 2025, another film had to drop out. That film just happened to be Marvel’s Fantastic Four: First Steps.

While the Marvel film received great reviews and had a solid opening weekend, it quickly dropped out of sight and concluded its theatrical run with $521 million at the box office, ranking it 11th in 2025. However, that drop was historic for Marvel and rang alarm bells at Disney over the state of the studio’s offerings.

Fantastic Four: First Steps was the highest-grossing Marvel film of 2025, which was only good enough for 11th. Captain America: Brave New World opened Marvel’s year with $415 million, while Thunderbolts* brought home $382 million at the box office. Marvel’s other two films of 2025 landed at 14th and 15th place, respectively.

Despite Marvel’s recent struggles, 2025 marks the first time since 2020 that a Marvel film did not finish in the top 10 for worldwide box office. In 2020, Marvel was slated to release two movies, but pushed them to 2021 due to the pandemic. Before that, the last time Marvel didn’t have a film in the top 10 was 2011, when the MCU was in its infancy.

Since Avengers: Endgame, the MCU has struggled to regain its footing, with only two films surpassing the $1 billion mark. However, that six-year stretch has also seen some of the worst-performing movies in the MCU, including The Marvels, which had the lowest box office numbers of any Marvel movie since Disney purchased the company in 2009.

Fans don’t have to fear. With Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Avengers: Doomsday coming in 2026, Marvel is pretty much guaranteed to have two $1 billion hits on their hands. But with little else confirmed for Marvel’s schedule, 2027 does have Avengers: Secret Wars; there could be another long drought in the future.

Once a guarantee of success, Marvel has dropped off in the last few years, but don’t worry, Robert Downey Jr. is coming to revive the franchise and hopefully bring some good stories with him. That will get Marvel back into the top 10 soon enough.

What do you think of Marvel’s recent offerings? Let us know in the comments.