A $1.5 billion MCU hit proves exactly whatAvengers: Doomsdayshould try to achieve. Thestory ofAvengers: Doomsdayis undoubtedly Marvel’s most important in years. The film is bringing the titular team back to the MCU for the first time since 2019, all while serving as the beginning of the end of the Multiverse Saga.
Thecast list ofAvengers: Doomsdayhas proven just how big the film will be by combining the Avengers, the New Avengers, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four. This is without mentioning the villain of theupcoming Marvel movie, with Robert Downey Jr. returning to the MCU as Doctor Doom. All of these elements prove how bigAvengers: Doomsdaywill be.
That said, it should not fall victim to the pressure placed on it.
Many will expectAvengers: Doomsdayto be one of thebest-ranked movies in the MCU, but there is an argument that it should not actively aim to achieve this. Rather than try and replicate the success of some of the MCU’s most consequential movies, another $1.5 billion Marvel hit should be the framework.
Avengers: Doomsday Is Facing Pressure To Be Like Avengers: Infinity War
One of the consequential MCU movies thatAvengers: Doomsdayis facing some pressure to be like isAvengers: Infinity War. There are several reasons for this, a lot of which make perfect sense. For instance, the Russo Brothers are returning forAvengers: Doomsday. The Russos have directed some of the MCU’s best movies, includingAvengers: Infinity WarandAvengers: Endgame.
WithAvengers: Doomsdaybeing their first MCU project since 2019, many are expecting a return to what made the likes ofAvengers: Infinity Warso great. Moreover,Avengers: Doomsdayhas a massive cast that brings together several disparate teams from the MCU.Infinity Wardid this with the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and the Wakandans, drawing another similarity.
Avengers: Doomsday,as already alluded to, is also the beginning of the end of the Multiverse Saga. It will have a tie-in sequel, thestory ofAvengers: Secret Wars, just asAvengers: Infinity Wardid withAvengers: Endgame.All of these reasons have led many to think of the film asInfinity War2.0, but this may be a mistake.
Avengers: Doomsday Needs To Be More Like 2012’s The Avengers Than Anything Else
From a pure story perspective,Avengers: Doomsdayshould aim to be more like 2012’sThe AvengersthanAvengers: Infinity War. The latter film was a success because of how well it capitalized on over a decade of build-up.Infinity Warhad the trilogies ofIron Man,Captain America, andThoras set up, as well as twoGuardiansmovies and twoAvengersstories.
This is without mentioning the likes ofBlack Panther,Spider-Man, the twoAnt-Manmovies, orDoctor Strange, with each of these characters appearing in one or more team-up projects beforeAvengers: Infinity War.This intense build-up over 10 years is what allowedAvengers: Infinity Warto be so effective.Avengers: Doomsdaydoes not have this.
The main villain ofDoomsdaywas only just introduced in thepost-credits scene ofThe Fantastic Four: First Steps, after all, with several of its characters having less build-up than those inInfinity Warhad. Some heroes, like the X-Men, Thor, Ant-Man, or Shuri, for instance, have some lengthy backstory, but the character dynamics are less fleshed-out than those inInfinity War.
Infinity Warbanked on dynamics like the Guardians mostly sticking together, Spider-Man and Iron Man teaming up, and Captain America and the other Avengers to allow closer links between characters to be formed.Avengers: Doomsdaywill likely struggle to emulate this, with many characters not being linked strongly in the MCU before this point.
For this reason,Avengers: Doomsdayshould position itself more like 2012’sThe Avengers. The former should focus more on the excitement of seeing several characters coming together for the first time and building their relationships and dynamics, as opposed to banking on any that are pre-existing. Even beyond its story,Avengers: Doomsdayis better off being compared to 2012’sThe Avengers.
Avengers: Doomsday’s Box Office Only Needs To Match The Avengers'
From a box office perspective, it is unrealistic to expectAvengers: Doomsdayto match the $2 billion haul ofAvengers: Infinity War. In recent years, the MCU’s box office has taken a bit of a hit, with only two of its last seven movies being truly profitable. This has proven that wider audiences may not be as into the MCU as they once were.
ForAvengers: Doomsday, this may be a bit of a worry. However, the film does not need to earn $2 billion to be successful. Even a $1 billion haul would be promising, given that only two MCU movies have achieved this since 2019. In the last few years, the MCU’s box office returns have looked more akin to Phase 1 than Phase 3.
$400 million tends to be around the average of late. Movies likeAnt-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts*,andThe Fantastic Four: First Stepsall came in around this benchmark, just likeIron Man, Thor, andCaptain America: The First Avenger.
2012’sThe Avengersthen grossed a huge $1.5 billion, which only one MCU movie has achieved since 2019. Therefore,Avengers: Doomsdayshould be aiming for a similar haul. Given the story and box office similarities of Phases 5 and 6 with Phase 1, the concluding story of the former should align more with that of the latter.
After all,Avengers: Doomsdayis the first team-up movie in that franchise sinceAvengers: Endgame. It cannot be expected to live up to the commercial heights ofAvengers: Infinity War,which had years of build-up before it.Avengers: Doomsdayhas a lot on its plate, but it may be better viewed as a new version ofThe Avengersthan anything else.
