Is The MCU The Greatest Franchise Of All Time?

[Amadeus Arkham]

In your honest opinion, do you think the MCU is worthy of the title of “greatest franchise of all time”? To me, I think it definitely is.

Few franchises can ever lay claim to being as consistently successful as they are while maintaining the quality it has. Avengers Endgame alone was arguably the greatest achievement of blockbuster filmmaking in recent memory, even if you don’t share the love for the movie most have, you cannot deny it delivered for most a powerful and emotionally engaging experience that will remembered for the rest of their lives.

[AdamFTF]

I'm not sure I should really even consider it one franchise so much as more of a "meta-franchise".

[80sbaby]

I would definitely says the answer is yes. Even if taking the characters/films individually, there still hasn't been a single flop.

I'm not sure I should really even consider it one franchise so much as more of a "meta-franchise".

Did you mean "meGa-franchise?"

[Pinsir]

Marvel Comics is better than the MCU, by like a lot.

Its great that the MCU provides joy and comfort to millions to you and millions of people. You say that even I, a critic of the MCU would have to admit that it provided a powerful and emotional experience that will be remembered for most of their lives, but thus far the MCU hasn't displayed a tremendous staying power in the public consciousness. How many memorable quotes does the MCU have? How many memorable sound tracks? How many memorable scenes and moments?

There is a pretty famous Star Trek episode called Darmok where the crew of the enterprise encounter a race of aliens that speak entirely with metaphors and I think you could replicate this style of speech with Star Wars, both the OT and PT, but you can't do it with the MCU. Sure, you got the Thanos snap and some Captain America memes, but that's it.

[Pinsir]

I would definitely says the answer is yes. Even if taking the characters/films individually, there still hasn't been a single flop

Man, MCU fans really love non-sequiturs.

Also, not true, Hulk (Budget 150 mill, Box Office 264 mill) and Cap 1 (Budget 216 mill, Box Office 370 mill) are clearly flops.

[80sbaby]

Man, MCU fans really love non-sequiturs.

Also, not true, Hulk (Budget 150 mill, Box Office 264 mill) and Cap 1 (Budget 216 mill, Box Office 370 mill) are clearly flops.

You don't have to lie, Craig...Cap 1 had $140 million budget and made $370, so doubled it's budget and not a flop. Hulk could be considered a "flop," though so 1 out of 22 lol you really showed how bad the MCU is...

[Totoro Man]

it's okay. I mean, in terms of quality it's probably the best franchise overall. but I'm not sure it's beaten out Godzilla or James Bond in terms of sheer volume.

but I'm glad it's turned out better than "Alien", "Predator", "Resident Evil", or "Underworld"! ;-)

and, of course, we can't forget the 13 sequels to "the Land Before Time"!

[Pinsir]

You don't have to lie, Craig...Cap 1 had $140 million budget and made $370, so doubled it's budget and not a flop. Hulk could be considered a "flop," though so 1 out of 22 lol you really showed how bad the MCU is...

https___blogs-images.forbes.com_csylt_files_2018_04_Marvel-table-1200x669.jpg

Since Cap 1 was filmed in Great Britain, they have to be more forthcoming with their financial information. The number I cited is from a Forbes article which can be found here along with the graph I posted. The number I posted doesn't even account for the total listed on this graph, as 44 million is listed here for staffing costs. So the total listed here 260.7 million and this doesn't account for advertising, which Cap 1 had tons of.

Also, I don't care if 1 or all MCU movies flopped, that doesn't mean they're bad movies in itself. I just object to this myth that the MCU never had a flop

[wjowski]

I would certainly say it's the most successful.

[OpaqueGiraffe17]

In your honest opinion, do you think the MCU is worthy of the title of “greatest franchise of all time”? To me, I think it definitely is.

Few franchises can ever lay claim to being as consistently successful as they are while maintaining the quality it has. Avengers Endgame alone was arguably the greatest achievement of blockbuster filmmaking in recent memory, even if you don’t share the love for the movie most have, you cannot deny it delivered for most a powerful and emotionally engaging experience that will remembered for the rest of their lives.

yes, to all of this. I'm not even a massive marvel fan, but I am very grateful the MCU exists. The Infinity Saga is a triumph that I doubt will be surpassed anytime soon.

[godisawesome]

The only rivals that I think could be matched against it a few years ago would have been the Bond series in terms of longevity and number of films and in terms of pop culture and box office impact would be Star Wars. And the MCU officially surpassed Star Wars, in my opinion, when Black Panther, a Solo stand-alone film, managed to beat Sequel Trilogy entry The Last Jedi at the box office, even as critics fell over themselves worshipping the pretentious drivel in TLJ, and even as Black Panther had a worse release date. The Bond series would require a holistic measurement of adjusting its box office grosses over time for inflation, as you would with Star Wars, but I’d say that the MCU has sufficiently advantages in terms of sheer number of excessively profitable films to be the more successful franchise.

And yeah, the triumph of managing to tie in almost all previous films to the Infinity Saga is a masterclass that is unlikely to be equaled. I look at Rise of Skywalker as being a failure because in comparison to Endgame, it’s got nothing.

[AndrewCrossett]

23 films, and I wouldn't rate any of them worse than "OK". So, yeah... maybe overall the greatest film franchise of all time. The Harry Potter movies are probably the only other franchise longer than a trilogy that I can say that about. (Maybe Mad Max, at 4 films).

[choptop]

In terms of profit I guess but I really wouldn't say any of the movies are the greatest thing ever endgame for me was really forgettable besides the ending battle the rest are I'd rate from good to ok but that's just my opinion.

[SpiderClops]

Yes. No other franchise has reached the epic scale of MCU and be successful at it. Harry Potter is the only other that comes close.

Like it or not, movies like The Avengers, Civil War, Infinity War and Endgame literally did not exist. They were the first of their kind. They changed the entire game when it comes to silver screen story telling.

[Powerboy]

In your honest opinion, do you think the MCU is worthy of the title of “greatest franchise of all time”? To me, I think it definitely is.

Few franchises can ever lay claim to being as consistently successful as they are while maintaining the quality it has. Avengers Endgame alone was arguably the greatest achievement of blockbuster filmmaking in recent memory, even if you don’t share the love for the movie most have, you cannot deny it delivered for most a powerful and emotionally engaging experience that will remembered for the rest of their lives.

There have been the James Bond movies which have mostly been successful. Likewise Star Wars and even Star Trek. Star Wars has generally been the biggest movie of the year but it's a grand total of 11 movies. Nothing I can think of has hit the success of the MCU for sheer number of movies and consistently being top hits with few exceptions. Whether it lasts as long as any of the others is still debatable but not in evidence either way. But sheer number of highly successful movies in a franchise, yes, that's not even debatable. That's fact.