Every Major Cinematic Universe Ranked From Worst To Best

The undisputed kings of the cinematic universe, Marvel Studios have seen a lot of pretenders to the throne emerge over the last decade, but nobody has even come remotely close to matching the critical and commercial consistency of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After ten years, eighteen movies and nearly $15bn at the box office, the MCU has snowballed into an unstoppable box office juggernaut.

As successful as they may be, Marvel's track record isn't exactly perfect. The studio has come in for well-founded criticisms that a lot of their movies rigidly adhere to the established formula and offer little in the way of tension or dramatic stakes, while the often-highlighted villain problem still hasn't been satisfactorily dealt with, frequently reverting to the 'hero battles underwritten evil mirror version of themself' archetype. Even Black Panther, a genuine cultural phenomenon, fell into many of the same traps as the previous seventeen blockbusters.

That being said, Marvel Studios are incredibly good at what they do. Successfully transplanting their tried-and-trusted formula across multiple genres, they are still yet to suffer a genuine box office bomb or see one of their movies receive a critical mauling. Until that day comes, the latest entry in the MCU is always going to be a guaranteed smash hit.