Superhero movies remain some of the most powerful box office draws in Hollywood. Marvel alone has produced multiple billion-dollar hits, several of the highest-grossing films ever made, and many of the best superhero movies of the past decade have become theatrical events capable of competing with virtually anything else released on the big screen.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day has now pushed that dominance even further.

Tom Holland’s fourth solo Spider-Man movie has earned more than $2.4 billion worldwide while spending six consecutive weekends at No. 1 domestically. In the process, it has passed Spider-Man: No Way Home and Avengers: Infinity War, despite leaning into the kind of grounded New York crime-fighting seen in some of the best street-level superhero movies.

The top 10 also reveals just how completely Marvel characters dominate the genre financially. Nine of these movies are based on Marvel Comics characters. The lone exception is Pixar’s Incredibles 2, while no DC movie has managed to crack the 10 highest-grossing superhero films ever.

10

Iron Man 3 — $1.216 Billion

After The Avengers turned the MCU into the biggest franchise in Hollywood, Iron Man 3 had the enviable but difficult job of following it. Audiences clearly weren’t finished with Tony Stark. The 2013 sequel earned approximately $1.216 billion worldwide, making it the first standalone Iron Man movie to cross $1 billion.

Shane Black’s sequel remains divisive, particularly because of its Mandarin twist, but Robert Downey Jr. was operating at peak movie-star power. The film also dealt directly with Tony’s life after the Battle of New York, giving the character a more personal story between massive Avengers events. More than a decade later, that enormous box office total still keeps it inside the top 10.

9

Incredibles 2 — $1.243 Billion

The Parr family is the biggest outlier on this entire list. Incredibles 2 earned approximately $1.243 billion worldwide and remains the only entry in the top 10 that isn’t based on a Marvel Comics property. It also grossed more worldwide than any DC superhero movie to date.

Pixar made audiences wait 14 years for the sequel, and that anticipation certainly helped. The movie reversed the family’s usual roles by putting Elastigirl back in the field while Mr. Incredible attempted to handle life at home. The superhero genre has changed dramatically since 2018, yet Incredibles 2 still sits comfortably among its biggest commercial successes.

8

Deadpool & Wolverine — $1.338 Billion

Putting Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool and Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine together sounded like guaranteed box office, but Deadpool & Wolverine still exceeded expectations. The 2024 movie earned approximately $1.338 billion worldwide despite its R rating, bringing Deadpool into the MCU while giving Jackman another opportunity to play Wolverine after Logan.

The film also arrived at a moment when Marvel could use a major theatrical win. Its mix of MCU characters and Fox-era nostalgia proved audiences were still very interested in the X-Men world, even as several of the oldest X-Men characters remain absent from Marvel’s movies. Few R-rated blockbusters have ever reached an audience this large.

7

Black Panther — $1.350 Billion

Black Panther became far more than another successful MCU installment when it arrived in 2018. Ryan Coogler’s movie earned approximately $1.350 billion worldwide, including more than $700 million domestically, making Wakanda one of Marvel’s most valuable corners almost immediately.

Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa had already been introduced in Captain America: Civil War, but Black Panther proved he did not need the Avengers around him to draw a gigantic audience. The movie also became the first superhero film nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Nearly a decade later, it remains one of the MCU’s defining standalone successes.

6

Avengers: Age Of Ultron — $1.405 Billion

A movie earning more than $1.4 billion and still being viewed as a slight commercial step backward shows just how high expectations were for the Avengers. Age of Ultron finished below its predecessor worldwide, but its approximately $1.405 billion haul would be a dream result for almost any other franchise.

The sequel has also aged better than its initial reputation might suggest. Wanda Maximoff became increasingly important to the MCU, while several story elements gained greater significance as the Infinity Saga progressed. Age of Ultron never became the most beloved Avengers movie, but audiences still turned it into one of the highest-grossing superhero films ever made.

5

The Avengers — $1.521 Billion

It is easy to forget how ambitious The Avengers looked in 2012. Marvel had spent several years introducing separate heroes and then gambled that audiences would follow all of them into a giant crossover. The experiment worked spectacularly, with the movie earning approximately $1.521 billion worldwide.

At the time, The Avengers became the highest-grossing superhero movie ever released and Marvel’s first entry in the billion-dollar club. Its famous shot of the team assembling in New York now seems almost restrained compared with later MCU crossovers, but this was the movie that proved the shared-universe formula could work on an enormous scale.

4

Spider-Man: No Way Home — $1.921 Billion

Credit: MovieStillsDB

Spider-Man: No Way Home pulled off its extraordinary box office run while the theatrical industry was still recovering from the pandemic. Released in December 2021, Tom Holland’s third solo Spider-Man movie earned approximately $1.921 billion worldwide despite never receiving a theatrical release in China.

Bringing Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield back alongside Holland transformed No Way Home into the Spider-Man event fans had imagined for years. It remained the character’s highest-grossing movie until 2026, and its critical reputation has held up just as well. Fans can also see how it compares with the franchise’s other films in this ranking of every Spider-Man movie by Rotten Tomatoes score.

3

Avengers: Infinity War — $2.052 Billion

Avengers: Infinity War was the first superhero movie in history to cross $2 billion worldwide, eventually reaching approximately $2.052 billion. Nearly every major MCU storyline converged around Thanos, creating the kind of crossover Marvel had spent a decade building toward.

The movie’s cliffhanger ending also turned Infinity War and Endgame into something close to a two-part theatrical event. Both films now appear on Disney+’s official list of Marvel titles to watch before Avengers: Doomsday, which makes sense considering how much the next Avengers movie is attempting to recapture that crossover scale.

2

Spider-Man: Brand New Day — $2.408 Billion

Even enormous expectations did not predict quite what Spider-Man: Brand New Day would become. As of September 8, Tom Holland’s fourth solo movie has earned approximately $2.408 billion worldwide, making it the second-highest-grossing superhero movie in history and the third-highest-grossing movie of any kind.

The achievement is even more remarkable because the movie returned Peter Parker to a comparatively grounded corner of the MCU. And it isn’t done. Brand New Day has now topped the domestic box office for six straight weekends, while its worldwide total continues climbing. The roughly $391 million separating it from Avengers: Endgame remains a considerable gap, but simply making that comparison shows how extraordinary Spider-Man’s latest run has become.

1

Avengers: Endgame — $2.799 Billion

For now, the superhero box office crown still belongs to Avengers: Endgame. The culmination of the MCU’s first 11 years earned approximately $2.799 billion worldwide, briefly becoming the highest-grossing movie of all time before Avatar reclaimed that title through later rereleases.

Endgame had something few blockbusters could ever reproduce: more than a decade of audience investment leading into one movie. Tony Stark’s final battle and the return of the heroes lost in Infinity War turned opening weekend into a genuine cultural event, ultimately producing a worldwide total no other superhero film has managed to surpass.

That record may soon get a little harder to catch. Avengers: Endgame is scheduled to return to domestic theaters on September 25, 2026, meaning its lifetime gross could begin climbing again just as Brand New Day continues its pursuit.

For the moment, however, Endgame’s nearly $2.8 billion total remains the superhero box office number to beat.