Avengers: Doomsday‘s fate – and what results it needs to be regarded as an MCU film that’s as successful as its predaccesors – has already effectively been decided by Spider-Man: No Way Home. Given audiences have been waiting for a follow up to Avengers: Endgame since the film’s release in 2019, there’s been almost a full decade of anticipation and hype that Doomsday needs to make good on, meaning the upcoming MCU movie really can’t afford to pull its punches.
Mercifully, it appears Doomsday will be doing the opposite, as the previews we’ve gotten for the film appear to show the MCU timeline is pulling out all the stops for the next Avengers film, which is already confirmed to feature the next version of the titular Avengers, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and a range of other notable MCU figureheads, including the return of Chris Evans as Captain America and Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom.
That said, the matter of how well Avengers: Doomsday needs to do in order to be regarded as a legitimate success in its own right has been the subject of much conversation, and some concern given the long wait for the fifth Avengers movie has led to increased expectations on some levels. Interestingly, Doomsday does have one colossal challenge it ideally needs to take on as a result of Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Avengers: Doomsday Ideally Needs A Higher Box Office Than No Way Home To Be Considered A True Success
Thus far, the Avengers movies have dominated the MCU’s box office charts and the charts for superhero movies more broadly speaking, due to their $1B+ results, and due to Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame being some of the highest grossing movies of all time.
However, one MCU movie that’s not centered on the Avengers has provided a similar result for the franchise in recent years, with that being none other than Spider-Man: No Way Home. Thanks to its own $1.9 billion box office results, Spider-Man: No Way Home is the third highest grossing film in the franchise, being only outmatched by the $2B+ box office takings of Infinity War and Endgame.
As it stands, this sets something of a high unofficial bar for Avengers: Doomsday to outstrip, as otherwise it would be the first Avengers movie to make less than a non-Avengers movie that was released before it. That said, the task of beating No Way Home‘s box office is easier said than done, given the extent of the Spider-Man movie’s success, and the complex factors that will decide whether Doomsday can best it financially.
Why Matching Spider-Man: No Way Home’s Box Office Could Be A Challenge For Doomsday
Spider-Man: No Way Home‘s box office is a demonstration of how strong combining one of the MCU’s biggest heroes with the nostalgia of the prior eras of Marvel’s movie history on-screen can be. While Avengers: Doomsday looks as though it could replicate this – given several Fox X-Men movie actors are set to return – the question becomes whether audiences will resonate with this as strongly.
Given the X-Men have returned in several MCU movies before Doomsday, some of the impact of these dramatic returns may be ultimately undermined, making the film’s own appeal to fans’ senses of nostalgia potentially less effective than No Way Home or Deadpool & Wolverine‘s efforts in this regard were.
Similarly, with the Avengers movies working best as stories that build on all the connective tissue that came before them, it does some Doomsday‘s current position is a more complex one, as there have been complaints the overall franchise is less connective and collectively cohesive than it has been in prior eras.
With all that said, the unique appeal of seeing the first Avengers movie after Avengers: Endgame should theoretically ensure a healthy level of box office success for Doomsday, especially given the colossal and exciting cast that’s been teased for the upcoming 2026 film. Ultimately, Avengers: Doomsday seems capable of matching or beating No Way Home‘s box office if marketing for the film is approached carefully, though the film’s results are by no means set in stone this far out from its release.
