10 biggest movies of 2018
2. Avengers: Infinity War
It’s only natural that Marvel’s massive, multi-series-converging extravaganza would make this list. There was virtually no way it wouldn’t. Whether out of genuine excitement at seeing all the Marvel heroes finally united in one movie, or just to see how bad the train wreck of trying to include 37 major characters in one less-than-3-hour movie would really be, people were always going to flock to this movie. It had been teased for almost a decade. It does something no movie has ever done before, and it does it surprisingly well. Though in the end, it may have mostly proved that telling a story of that size and scope with so many moving parts is just never going to be as satisfying as a story which does a couple things really well.
No matter whether or not Marvel pulled it off, it certainly wasn’t hurting at the box office. Compared to Infinity War’s budget of at least $300 million, the film netted $678 million domestically and $1.3 billion internationally. Perhaps the most surprising thing about it was the fact that it’s not number one on this list—but more on that in a moment.
The main question is whether Infinity War will lay the foundation for even more big studios to try to build elaborate universes with an eye for an ultimate payoff, or whether Marvel’s successful universe will prove to be unique. Other studios are already attempting it, though DC is doing it backwards; Justice League came out before the majority of its team’s stand-alone films, and if its comparable success and reception is anything to go by, it won’t ever be able to accomplish what Marvel has done.
However, in the future it may well be that cinematic universes become the name of the game. It is essentially a way to guarantee an existing fan base will come and see every new movie in the series. When a huge multi-hero epic comes out, even more viewers come out of the woodwork just to see what the fuss is about. But such an enterprise requires years of patience and most importantly, the ability to churn out consistently good movies; it is by no means a foolproof get-rich-quick scheme, and Marvel’s success may prove to be the exception rather than the rule.