I Can’t Believe That Sony’s Entire Spider-Man Universe Box Office Is Beaten By 1 MCU Movie

The entire box office of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe movies put together fails to beat the numbers of one Marvel Cinematic Universe release. The SSU started in 2018 with Tom Hardy’s Venom. According to Box Office Mojo, the film finished its worldwide run with $856 million. That led some to believe that Sony had found a viable route to continue developing Spider-Man characters while Tom Holland’s Peter Parker stayed in the MCU. However, all of the SSU movies after Venom faced different kinds of issues, with no entry in the franchise ever reaching the same success it did.

I enjoyed the first Venom film and hoped the SSU would succeed. While the Venom movies still remained fairly enjoyable throughout the rest of the character’s trilogy, they and the SSU as a whole failed to be the major success that Sony was expecting. I don’t see how the studio thought leaving out Spider-Man to focus on his villains would work, especially with niche choices like Morbius and Madame Web. While Tom Holland’s Spider-Man movies thrived, the SSU sank. Kraven the Hunter is the final film in the franchise, and a single MCU movie surpasses the SSU’s entire box office.

The Box Office Of All Of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe Movies Added Together Still Equals Less Than Endgame Alone

Avengers: Endgame Is The MCU’s Crown Jewel

Sony’s Spider-Man Universe has released six movies, from Venom, its highest-grossing film, to Kraven the Hunter, its final and lowest-grossing entry. According to data shared by The Numbers, all of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe films come together for a total of $2.15 billion at the worldwide box office. That is not awful for certain franchises, but when it comes to superhero movies, which are expected to earn high numbers at the box office, the SSU’s earnings fail to excite. Despite the franchise’s known issues, I was still surprised to see that one of the MCU’s best movies beats the entire SSU.

Avengers: Endgame is the MCU’s highest-grossing film. For a time, the movie was also the number one among all other films, but a re-release of director James Cameron’s Avatar brought the record back to the sci-fi franchise. At $2.15 billion, the box office of all SSU movies put together is still over half a billion short of the MCU movie, as Avengers: Endgame towers above the SSU with a massive $2.78 billion take. Sony’s Spider-Man Universe almost loses to two Avengers films, as 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War grossed $2.048 billion worldwide, lurking close to the now-dead franchise.

Why Avengers: Endgame’s Box Office Is Higher Than Every Sony Spider-Man Universe Movie Combined

The MCU And The SSU Followed Very Different Paths

While I was surprised to see that Avengers: Endgame alone was enough to comfortably beat the SSU’s entire box office, I have to say that it’s easy to see how that is the case. The SSU started strong with Venom, but every movie after that slowly decreased at the box office, with critics and audiences alike having negative opinions about the franchise. One of the reasons a Sony executive gave for the end of the franchise after Kraven the Hunter is that no matter the quality of the project, any new SSU film would be ripped to shreds.

I agree with that sentiment, as I liked Kraven the Hunter more than Madame Web and Morbius, which left me shocked by how below them the Aaron Taylor-Johnson film is. However, the problem does not lie in the audience or critics but in the overall quality of SSU releases, which was far from the best. Avengers: Endgame‘s success was a symptom of how well the MCU was handled. The film was a culmination of all that came before in the franchise, putting together beloved heroes in an exciting story. Building on past hits, it deservedly became a box office juggernaut.

I Don’t Think I Ever Truly Got Just How Successful Endgame Was Until I Realized It Beat The Box Office Of All The Sony Spider-Man Universe Movies Added Together

The MCU’s Success Is Often Taken For Granted By Fans

Doing what the MCU managed to do during its Infinity Saga is incredibly hard. Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige and the rest of his team succeeded on a level that was truly unprecedented in movie history. Marvel secured a streak of major box office hits every year for such a long time that I feel the MCU’s achievements were taken for granted in a way. As the MCU as a whole was such a well-oiled machine, it was harder to realize just how projects like Avengers: Endgame completely obliterated their competition.

The failure of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe has helped me see just how much the MCU succeeded. Making a cohesive and exciting shared superhero universe in live-action is hard, as depicted by the SSU and the old DCEU’s issues, but Marvel made it look easy for many years. Avengers: Endgame was the franchise’s crown jewel, perfectly tying up several years of stories with beloved characters interacting and a villain who was worthy of the big event. Avengers: Endgame beating the combined box office of all SSU releases is quite the feat, showing how Marvel Studios’ most important film was handled perfectly.

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