Over the course of 2022, Marvel Studios put three blockbusters in theaters, debuted three new series starring brand new heroes on Disney+, and even gave us two delightfully clever “Special Presentations”: Werewolf By Night and The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. And yet 2022 didn’t feel like a banner year for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As of December 2, Top Gun: Maverick is lording over the yearly box office race with the likes of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love and Thunder, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever straggling hundreds of millions of dollars behind. This year’s slate of Disney+ debuts lacked the pop cultural resonance of WandaVision‘s ubiquitous memes and for the first time ever, fans might be wondering if the MCU has lost its chokehold on pop culture.
Ever since Iron Man premiered in 2008, Marvel seems to have been largely bulletproof. Movie fans and comics nerds alike have more than embraced the MCU, sending film after film to the top of the box office. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has also permeated almost every bit of pop culture imaginable, going far just beyond Halloween costumes and kids’ lunch boxes. (I’ve literally bought bananas with Avengers-branded stickers affixed to the peel.) The MCU is loved, hated, envied, and even scorned as the killer of fine cinema. It is, whether you like it or not, a part of our lives. But has it loosened its grip on our collective psyches?
Was 2022 the beginning of the end for the MCU? It certainly is odd to see a non-MCU film dominating the box office (in a non-COVID year). I personally haven’t heard Moon Knight or She-Hulk‘s titles bandied around watercoolers with the same intensity of Stranger Things or House of the Dragon. Is the Marvel brand as superhumanly strong as ever? Or is 2022 where it began its inevitable descent into irrelevance?
How Bad Was 2022 for the MCU?
Did it feel like a bad year for the MCU to you? Could there be actual numerical data supporting this inkling? Well, guess what? There is. 2022 was indeed an off year for Kevin Feige and his multiverse of heroes, villains, and quirky little scene stealers. Since this is the first year Marvel has produced Special Presentations, we can’t compare them to successes of the past. But we can look at how the MCU’s original show and movies fared.
Let’s look at the state of the Marvel Cinematic Box Office first.
In the ten years between 2012 and 2021, MCU films claimed six top spots on the domestic yearly box office list. In 2020, they were absent from the list only because their film slate was put on pause because of the pandemic. In fact, discounting 2020, Marvel was on a hot streak of dominating the box office before 2022. Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War were a tight first and second place in 2018, Avengers: Endgame was top of the list in 2019, and Spider-Man: No Way Home dominated 2021 (and part of 2022).
You’d think that run would continue in 2022, but no. Top Gun: Maverick hasn’t just jetted past Marvel’s offerings this year, but over $300 million separates it from the current second-place flick of the year, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. That’s like almost a whole Thor: Love and Thunder. The Tom Cruise showcase is even being re-released into theaters this holiday season to duke it out against its last two rivals for that top slot: Avatar: The Way of Water and a still robust Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. I think it’s safe to say that 2022 was Top Gun‘s year to shine, not Marvel’s.
And what about the MCU’s Disney+ offerings? 2021’s WandaVision not only earned Emmy nominations for Marvel, but became a veritable pop culture phenomenon. (It didn’t hurt that it was the first new Marvel project fans had gotten since 2019.) Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, and Hawkeye each brought Avengers to the small screen. In 2022, the MCU took a few more risks with their Disney+ slate, introducing a trio of new faces to fans.
Moon Knight, starring movie stars Oscar Isaac and Ethan Hawke, was a resounding success for Marvel. According to Nielsen data, the show not only debuted in the Top Ten, but held its own, growing in reach week after week. Though it never toppled Netflix juggernauts like Bridgerton or Ozark from the top slot, it ended its six season run as the third most streamed title across major platforms.
Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk, however, did not fare so well. While Ms. Marvel, starring newcomer Iman Vellani, just barely cracked the Nielsen Top Ten for Original Streaming Programming upon its debut, it struggled to gain momentum over the weeks. It never elbowed into the top list, combining originals and legacy titles. She-Hulk similarly debuted on the Originals list, but eventually did pick up some steam. Just some.
In sports parlance, it was a building year for Marvel’s Disney+ slate. But was it a total flop?
Did the MCU Flop in 2022?
Ready for my most scalding hot take: Despite those aforementioned stumbles, Marvel did not enter its flop era in 2022. Not even close. The MCU is still a massive pop cultural titan and will continue to be well into 2023.
Okay, sure, it’s looking more and more like Top Gun: Maverick will block the MCU from claiming the top box office spot of 2022. But all four of the Marvel films that were in theaters this year are in this year’s top ten, with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever still inching up that chart. People are still showing up for Marvel movies.
On the Disney+ side, Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk both drew respectable numbers, with the latter growing week to week. Moon Knight, on the other hand, was a hands down success story for Disney+. Maybe you didn’t see a lot of Moon Knights or Scarlet Scarabs wandering the neighborhood on Halloween, but its viewership numbers were strong from start to finish.
Marvel’s Special Presentations were both creative triumphs. By existing outside the larger Phase 4 structure, Werewolf By Night and The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special proved there’s still gas in the MCU’s tank to tell new stories in exciting new ways.
The MCU did not face plant in 2022. Still, it’s clear that the franchise is finally showing some weak spots. What are these flaws? And how did Top Gun: Maverick exploit them? Let’s dig into it…
Why Did the MCU Wobble in 2022?
For over a decade, Marvel was able to dominate the pop culture landscape with a winning formula that catered to comic book fans and casual filmgoers alike. But in recent years, it’s become harder and harder to be a casual MCU fan. The success of Marvel’s films meant that parent company Disney started flooding the landscape with more and more MCU content. We went from one or two Marvel movies in theaters per year to at least three. Add the constant flow of MCU-related content on Disney+ and we’re living in a state of Marvel over-saturation. There’s simply too much to keep up with. And everything so interconnected now that you have to keep up with every project if you’re going to understand what’s going on! It’s a situation that alienates all but the most devoted Marvel fans.
Furthermore, by sating Marvel fans’ constant cries for more content, the MCU ironically made its projects seem less special. It’s no longer a big deal to get a new Marvel movie or show. Moreover, in the rush to complete all of these projects, corners have started to get cut. There is an industry-wide VFX crunch issue that has led to poor working conditions for artists and sub-par results onscreen. Marvel has been explicitly called out for being among the most draconic studios to work for in the industry and even casual viewers have begun calling out wonky VFX in final projects.
Which leads us to why Top Gun: Maverick trounced Marvel at the box office this year. Not only did the film mark Tom Cruise’s long-awaited return to one of his most iconic roles, but the film’s thrilling action sequences were, uh, real. Cruise and his fellow cast mates learned how to be real fighter pilots and subjected their bodies to rigorous training to get the most visceral footage imaginable. Director Joseph Kosinski painstakingly set up action sequences to be as clean and clear cut to the audience as possible. Compared to the blur of pixels we see in MCU films, Top Gun: Maverick‘s action was a literal marvel. It offered filmgoers the “specialness” that Marvel’s constant churn of shows and movies is sorely lacking lately.
By most metrics, Marvel had an exceptionally strong 2022. It’s only when you compare the studio’s performance to itself that you see where the MCU is starting to flag. The MCU machine is still a juggernaut that lords over the rest of the pop culture landscape, but it is starting to show its age. Whether or not the MCU can reclaim its specialness and keep casual fans happy comes down to the execution of the next big storyline and the power of a villain named Kang.