Rewatching The Lowest Grossing Avengers Movie Made Me Realize How Important It Actually Is

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After my recent MCU rewatch, I realized just how important the lowest grossing Avengers movie actually is. Avengers: Age of Ultron was released on May 1, 2015, and failed to live up to The Avengers just three years prior, both critically and financially. Despite all of that, looking back on how far the MCU timeline has come, it"s impressive just how much heavy lifting Avengers: Age of Ultron actually did for the universe.
Marvel has a big release slate in 2025 and beyond, but it is nice to look back on when the universe was trying to find its footing. There were growing pains trying to figure out what direction to take it, but when Phase 3 hit, and the MCU saw success after massive success, all the groundwork laid before is a big reason why. Avengers: Age of Ultron is one of those movies that had to weather the growing pains, and revisiting it reaffirms its place as not only one of the best MCU movies, but one of the most important.
Age Of Ultron Had The Weakest Box Office For Avengers Movies Astonishingly, A Billion Dollars Was A Comparative Disappointment Close When The Avengers came out in 2012, it shattered all expectations, making over $200 million in its opening weekend for a then record. It then went on to make over $1.5 billion worldwide, cementing it as one of the high grossing movies of all time. Avengers: Age of Ultron actually made less in its opening weekend, which typically doesn"t happen with Marvel sequels, bringing in $191 million to an eventually worldwide total of $1.39 billion.
Avengers Movies at the Box Office
Movie
Year
Worldwide Gross
Avengers: Age of Ultron
2015
$1,395,316,979
The Avengers
2012
$1,515,100,211
Avengers: Infinity War
2018
$2,048,359,754
Avengers: Endgame
2019
$2,748,242,781
That number stands out even more after Avengers: Infinity War made over $2 billion, and Avengers: Endgame briefly became the highest grossing movie of all time with over $2.7 billion worldwide. One movie had to be the lowest and that fell to Avengers: Age of Ultron. Despite the financial downturn from The Avengers, the sequel"s box-office is still incredibly respectable as it sits as the fifth highest grossing MCU movie, behind the other Avengers films and Spider-Man: No Way Home.
It Set Up So Much Of The MCU Going Forward The Shockwaves Of Ultron's Attack Are Still Felt In Phase 5 Close At the time, one of the big criticisms of Avengers: Age of Ultron was that it tried to set up too much going forward, with various members of the Avengers splitting off to set up their own films. Looking back on it now, it actually set the stage for a lot that the MCU would explore in Phase 3 and the lead-up into Avengers: Infinity War, with arguably the most important being the initial seeds being planted for Captain America: Civil War. In fact, most of Tony Stark"s motivations going forward come from his vision that Scarlet Witch showed him.

Related I've Been Arguing For Ultron's MCU Return For Years - Here's Why It's The Best Marvel Decision I"ve always believed that Ultron would come back, and reports that Marvel Studios is reversing his apparent demise is one of the best MCU decisions.
Posts Although the tone of the film ended up being much different, Thor"s motivations to return to Asgard to stop its destruction sets up Thor: Ragnarok alongside Bruce Banner deciding to leave Earth at the end of the film. Hawkeye"s family is introduced, which leads into one of the most heart-wrenching scenes in the MCU during the opening of Avengers: Endgame, and it at least attempted to give Natasha Romanoff some more depth. It"s messy, but it did a lot to shape the MCU as a whole. Wanda Maximoff and Vision became a significant part of the universe after appearing here.
Age Of Ultron Is Better Than People Remember Time Has Been A Lot Kinder To The Avengers' First Sequel Than You Might Imagine Close As time goes on, I personally feel Avengers: Age of Ultron is one of the strongest MCU movies overall, at least when it comes to Avengers films. It easily looks the best of the Avengers franchise, as well, with some of the most gorgeous looking CGI the universe has ever had. What really helps elevate Avengers: Age of Ultron is all the interactions the characters have with each other. They all feel distinct, and the party scene is one of the best things to ever come out of the MCU.

Related 10 Best Avengers Scenes Across The Team's 4 MCU Films As the Marvel Cinematic Universe"s premier heroes, Earth"s Mightiest Heroes has had several memorable scenes across its four headlining movies.
Posts The biggest flaw of Avengers: Age of Ultron is the titular villain. The trailers for the film promised something much darker than what came before, but the final product felt different in tone, especially Ultron, whose personality was essentially modeled off Tony Stark, but it was his actions in Sokovia that helped shape some of the conflicts in future installments.
Avengers: Age of Ultron sits at 76% on Rotten Tomatoes, behind Avengers: Infinity War at 85%, The Avengers at 91%, and Avengers: Endgame at 94%.
Avengers: Age of Ultron honestly feels underrated at this point in the MCU, with fantastic performances, mostly great character interactions, and thrilling setpieces that truly help to set it apart, while also being so important to the MCU overall.

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7/10 17 7.2/10 Avengers: Age of Ultron PG-13 ActionSci-FiSuperhero In Avengers: Age of Ultron, Earth's Mightiest must reunite and work with newcomers Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch to battle a new antagonist Ultron, who receives an all-new origin story while dealing with a new level of inner conflict amongst the team. Quicksilver & Scarlet Witch may not necessarily agree with The Avengers and initially blame Tony Stark for creating the new villain and the death of their parents. Avengers: Age of Ultron was directed and written by Joss Whedon and produced by Kevin Feige for Marvel Studios. The movie was released on April 13, 2015, followed by its eventual sequels, Avengers: Infinity War in 2018 and Avengers: Endgame in 2019.
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*Availability in US Director Joss Whedon Release Date May 1, 2015 Studio(s) Marvel Studios Distributor(s) Disney Writers Joss Whedon Cast Chris Hemsworth , Clark Gregg , Robert Downey Jr. , Cobie Smulders , Aaron Taylor-Johnson , Jeremy Renner , Thomas Kretschmann , Chris Evans , Don Cheadle , Mark Ruffalo , Elizabeth Olsen , Scarlett Johansson , Paul Bettany , Samuel L. Jackson , James Spader Runtime 141 minutes prequel(s) The Avengers Budget 365 million USD Expand Upcoming MCU Movies