Every Billion Dollar Comic Book Movie Ranked Worst To Best

5. The Avengers (2012)

Box Office: $1,518,812,988

The Avengers was a hell of a dice-throw for Marvel at the time it came out. Even on the back of the successes of Iron Man and Captain America, the very idea of a superhero team-up movie on this sort of scale, which would actually add MORE characters than had been introduced in the previous Phase One movies.

It was always going to be monumentally expensive and balancing so many characters (and so many great actors) looked a pain, when there was also a self-contained story to build in. But in Joss Whedon, Marvel Studios had a gem and he made an irresistibly charming action movie with lots of heart, just enough humour and a great eye for spectacle.

Sure, the third act suffers a little for the need to shoe-horn the Chitauri in, but it's in no way fatal.