Marvel Cinematic Universe Films

1.Captain America: The First Avenger

Joe Johnston's 2011 origin film for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, set in 1940s Brooklyn and wartime Europe. The first Marvel film to commit fully to a period setting and the one that turned Chris Evans into Steve Rogers for the next decade.

2.Captain Marvel

The 2019 Marvel film stars Brie Larson as Carol Danvers — set in 1995, structured as an MCU prequel to Avengers: Endgame, and the first female-led superhero film to pass $1 billion at the global box office.

3.Iron Man

Jon Favreau's 2008 superhero film starring Robert Downey Jr. as the weapons-industrialist Tony Stark. 126 minutes; the unlikely B-tier Marvel character launch that became the foundational film of a 35-film, 70-billion-dollar cinematic universe.

4.Iron Man 2

Jon Favreau's 2010 sequel to Iron Man — Tony Stark fighting palladium poisoning and a Russian physicist while Marvel publicly assembles the supporting cast that will become the Avengers two years later.

5.The Incredible Hulk

Louis Leterrier’s 2008 film casts Edward Norton as a fugitive Bruce Banner pursuing a cure while General Ross and Emil Blonsky turn his condition into a military prize. It is the MCU’s early, unusually self-contained experiment in combining a chase thriller with a monster film.

6.Thor

Kenneth Branagh's 2011 Marvel Studios film — Chris Hemsworth's first turn as the Norse god of thunder, the fourth installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and a fish-out-of-water comedy bolted to a Wagnerian family drama.

7.The Avengers

Joss Whedon's 2012 superhero ensemble — the payoff of the five-film build-up Marvel Studios began with Iron Man (2008), and the movie that proved the shared-universe model could work as a feature.

8.Thor: The Dark World

The 2013 Marvel sequel sent Thor and Loki on an uneasy alliance through the Nine Realms against a Dark Elf threat — a transitional Phase Two film best remembered for the Hiddleston–Hemsworth dynamic and a famously troubled post-production.

9.Iron Man 3

The 2013 Shane Black-directed sequel that opened Phase Two of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Tony Stark, post-Avengers PTSD, an experimental regeneration serum, and the Mandarin twist that split the fandom.

10.Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Anthony and Joe Russo's 2014 Marvel Studios film — a 1970s-style political thriller in superhero wrapping, the MCU's most consequential single film, and the one that broke S.H.I.E.L.D. permanently.

11.Guardians of the Galaxy

James Gunn's 2014 Marvel space-opera — a previously obscure 2008 comic-book team brought to the screen by an indie-comedy director with a 1970s mixtape on the soundtrack. The Marvel film no one expected to work and the one that proved the studio could.

12.Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

James Gunn's 2017 MCU sequel uses Kurt Russell as Peter Quill's god-like Celestial father to turn a space-rock comic-book romp into a surprisingly serious film about chosen family, paternity, and what Yondu actually was — held together by another sharp 70s-pop soundtrack.

13.Avengers: Age of Ultron

Joss Whedon's 2015 sequel to The Avengers — Tony Stark builds an AI peacekeeper that decides peace requires eliminating humans. Introduces Vision, Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver, and was Whedon's last MCU film.

14.Ant-Man

The 2015 MCU heist comedy closed Phase Two by deliberately shrinking the scale — Paul Rudd's ex-con father in a size-changing suit, Michael Douglas as the original Ant-Man, and a famously tortured production history involving Edgar Wright's departure.

15.Captain America: Civil War

Anthony and Joe Russo's 2016 Marvel film — the Avengers split over the U.N.'s Sokovia Accords. The third Captain America movie, the de facto Avengers 2.5, and the introduction of Black Panther and the MCU's Spider-Man.

16.Black Widow

Scarlett Johansson's long-delayed 2021 solo Marvel film is a prequel set between Civil War and Infinity War — part family-reunion comedy, part Soviet-spy thriller — and introduced Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova to the MCU.

17.Black Panther

Ryan Coogler's 2018 Marvel film made $1.35 billion, became the first superhero movie nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, and reshaped what a mainstream superhero film could look like and be about — anchored by Chadwick Boseman's T'Challa and Michael B. Jordan's Killmonger.

18.Spider-Man: Homecoming

Jon Watts's 2017 Spider-Man reboot — the first time the character appeared as a solo lead inside the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Tom Holland as a 15-year-old Peter Parker, Michael Keaton as a working-class Vulture, and a deliberate John Hughes high-school-comedy register.

19.Doctor Strange

Scott Derrickson's 2016 Marvel Studios film — Benedict Cumberbatch as the arrogant-neurosurgeon-turned-Sorcerer-Supreme, the MCU's pivot into mystical and multidimensional territory, and the introduction of the franchise's most visually inventive set pieces.

20.Thor: Ragnarok

Taika Waititi's 2017 Marvel Studios film — the comic, neon, Jeff Goldblum-and-synthwave reset of the Thor franchise, with Cate Blanchett as Hela and Tessa Thompson introduced as Valkyrie.

21.Ant-Man and the Wasp

Peyton Reed's 2018 Marvel Studios sequel — a smaller-scale heist comedy released between Infinity War and Endgame that introduces Evangeline Lilly's Wasp as a co-lead and unfolds entirely on a San Francisco timeline the larger MCU has not yet noticed.

22.Avengers: Infinity War

The Russo brothers' 2018 crossover film bringing together every major hero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe against Thanos. Closes on the Snap. Grossed $2.05 billion worldwide and is one of the largest-scale studio films ever made.

23.Avengers: Endgame

The Russo brothers' 2019 closer to the 22-film Infinity Saga. Three hours, a time-travel heist, the largest box office in cinema history at the time of release, and the deaths or retirements of three of the original six Avengers.

24.Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Destin Daniel Cretton's 2021 MCU film — the first Marvel Studios picture with an Asian lead and director, Tony Leung as the actual Mandarin, and martial-arts choreography by Brad Allan and the Jackie Chan Stunt Team.

25.Spider-Man: Far From Home

Jon Watts's 2019 Marvel Studios/Sony co-production — Tom Holland's second Spider-Man solo film, the official close of the MCU's Phase Three, and Jake Gyllenhaal's turn as Mysterio in the franchise's most committed villain reveal.

26.Eternals

Chloé Zhao's 2021 Marvel Studios film — a ten-person ensemble of immortal alien protectors that spans 7,000 years of human history, the MCU's most divisive entry, and the first Oscar-winning director's experiment with the franchise.

27.Spider-Man: No Way Home

Jon Watts's 2021 film closed the Tom Holland Spider-Man trilogy by reaching across two decades of prior live-action Spider-Man movies — bringing back Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and five of their villains — and became the highest-grossing film of its year worldwide.

28.Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Sam Raimi's 2022 MCU return — his first superhero film since Spider-Man 3 (2007). A Wanda Maximoff horror film that happens to wear a Doctor Strange sequel as a coat, with the Illuminati and a body count larger than most Marvel films allow.

29.Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Ryan Coogler's 2022 sequel to Black Panther, made after Chadwick Boseman's death. The film refuses to recast T'Challa, hands the mantle to Letitia Wright's Shuri, and introduces Tenoch Huerta as Namor of the underwater Mesoamerican kingdom Talokan.

30.Thor: Love and Thunder

Taika Waititi's 2022 sequel to Ragnarok — Christian Bale as the grief-stricken Gorr the God Butcher, Natalie Portman returning as the Mighty Thor, and the comedy register dialed past the point most viewers wanted it.

31.Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

The 2023 Ant-Man sequel opened MCU Phase Five and introduced Jonathan Majors's Kang the Conqueror as the next-saga villain — a visually ambitious but mixed-reception film that ended up overshadowed by behind-the-scenes events.

32.Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

James Gunn's 2023 conclusion to the Marvel sub-franchise he had built across two films and a holiday special. Rocket Raccoon's origin story, the High Evolutionary, and a film made under unusual production circumstances after Gunn's firing and rehiring.

33.The Marvels

Nia DaCosta's 2023 Captain Marvel sequel teams Brie Larson with Iman Vellani's Ms. Marvel and Teyonah Parris's Monica Rambeau, linked by a body-swap power. The film is brisk and the central trio works, but it became the MCU's first outright box-office failure.

34.Deadpool & Wolverine

The 2024 Shawn Levy-directed Marvel Studios film that brought Deadpool into the MCU and reunited Ryan Reynolds with Hugh Jackman's Wolverine. The highest-grossing R-rated film ever made.

35.Captain America: Brave New World

Anthony Mackie’s first feature-length lead as Captain America places Sam Wilson inside a politically charged conspiracy thriller, testing the empathy, discipline, and moral independence that distinguish his version of the shield-bearing hero.

36.Thunderbolts*

Jake Schreier’s character-driven Marvel ensemble brings Yelena Belova, Bucky Barnes, Red Guardian, Ghost, John Walker, and several other damaged operatives together when their handler decides they are liabilities. Beneath its espionage, action, and abrasive humor, the film is an unusually direct superhero story about isolation, shame, depression, and the difficult work of accepting help.

37.The Fantastic Four: First Steps

Matt Shakman’s retro-futurist adventure introduces Marvel’s First Family as established heroes on an alternate 1960s Earth, where an intimate family milestone collides with the planet-devouring threat of Galactus.