Marvel’s cinematic universe is rich and intriguing, full of the superheroes we know and love, and provides the perfect escape for us lowly mortals to enjoy. A lot of work (and money) goes into making these movies, so I’ve gathered 50 facts and figures about the MCU for you to enjoy!
50. The first Marvel movie was Iron Man in 2008
49. For Age of Ultron, the top earner was Robert Downey Jr., who received $40 million dollars to play Iron Man. The rest of the main cast earned as follows:
Scarlett Johansson - $20 million. Chris Evans - $6.9 million. Jeremy Renner - $6.1 million. Chris Hemsworth - $5.4 million. Mark Ruffalo - $2.8 million
48. The rumoured budget for Infinity War 1 and 2 is an eye-watering $1 billion
47. Marvel’s highest grossing film in the cinematic universe is the first The Avengers, which grossed $623,357,910. Not surprising, considering how awesome it was!
46. Moneysupermarket.com estimated the cost of being Iron Man 3 in real life to be just over $10 billion. So, if you want to be Iron Man, you better win the lottery. More than once
45. The total worldwide box office gross for the MCU to date is $12,022,259,582. I don’t even know how to say a number that huge!
44. In Iron Man, there is a scene in Stark’s workshop where part of a prototype of Captain America’s shield can be seen in the background
43. Chris Evans turned down the role of Captain America "a few times" before finally accepting. I can’t imagine anyone else playing Cap; I’m definitely grateful he agreed in the end
42. In 2009, Disney bought Marvel for $4 billion. The films went on to gross $10 billion worldwide. I bet whoever made that decision got a nice pay raise
41. Hugh Jackman was one of the first choices to play Iron Man
40. Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes) almost played Captain America
39. In the ending credits of Guardians of the Galaxy, it was director James Gunn's dance that was motion captured for the dancing baby Groot scene
38. To visit sick children in hospital in character as Peter Quill (Star Lord), Chris Pratt stole his costume from the set. So thoughtful. I’m sure the kids appreciated it, Chris!
37. Chris Pratt lost 60 pounds for his role as Peter Quill/Star Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy
36. It took five hours each time to apply Dave Bautista’s full body makeup for Drax, and an hour and a half to remove. He had to stand for the whole application, but never once complained, according to Chris Pratt
35. The scene in Thor: The Dark World where Thor hangs his hammer on the coat hook was improvised by Chris Hemsworth. Such a funny moment, always cracks me up!
34. 18 prosthetic tattoo pieces were used to create Drax’s look in Guardians of the Galaxy
33. Tony Stark is not actually the richest character in the MCU. Black Panther’s fortune is a huge $500 billion
32. For Thor: The Dark World, there were over 30 Mjölnirs made (That’s the name of Thor’s hammer, just FYI). They were different weights and had different features, such as lighting up, so that there was a hammer to suit whatever effect they were filming
31. To win the part, Chris Hemsworth packed on 20 pounds of muscle in eight weeks to look the part of Thor. The ladies of the world thank you, Chris
30. Both Chris and Liam Hemsworth auditioned for the role of Thor, and producers had to choose between the two. I think it was the right choice, I just can’t picture Liam as our favourite hammer-wielding god
29. Ant-Man was stuck in development for more than 20 years before it started getting made. Stan Lee first pitched an Ant-Man movie back in the late 80’s, but it was dismissed because it was similar to Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, which was released in 1989
28. According to Thor director Kenneth Branagh, Odin is the one that hid the Tesseract in Captain America: The First Avenger, and the Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers. He is the ruler of the Marvel Universe, says Branagh
27. Sam Rockwell was almost cast as Iron Man. Instead, he plays Justin Hammer in Iron Man 2
26. Vin Diesel recorded ‘I am Groot’ over a thousand times, and while on stilts. Because method acting, I guess?
25. Avengers: Age of Ultron marks the fifth time in a Marvel movie that Tony Stark has been choked by someone, and not necessarily a villain either. Thor even choked him. I don’t want to say he deserved it, but… I can’t think of how to finish that sentence
24. It took five hours in the makeup chair each day to get Zoe Saldana her lovely shade of Gamora green. There was no CGI involved; just paint, makeup and a few silicone prosthetics
23. The most viewed Marvel trailer ever might come as a surprise. The current record holder is the teaser trailer for Thor: Ragnarok, with more than 136 million views. I just watched the trailer and FYI, it looks amazing!
22. Spider-Man: Homecoming marks Robert Downey Jr.’s eighth time playing Tony Stark
21. Some potential voices for Rocket Raccoon before Bradley Cooper was cast included Adam Sandler, H. Jon Benjamin (Luckily not him, because we all would’ve heard Bob/Archer the whole movie), David Tennant, Jim Carrey and Sharlto Copley
20. Phil Coulson is the only character to appear across all the different movies from the MCU
19. Anthony Mackie AKA The Falcon, only took home $280,000 for his role in Age of Ultron. Pretty big pay gap there, compared to his co-stars who earned in the millions, but it was only a small role. It's still weird to hear of movie stars being paid so little though
18. Spider-Man: Homecoming is the sixteenth film in the MCU
17. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Paul Rudd were the two frontrunners for the role of Ant-Man. Paul Rudd was a perfect casting choice though
16. Benedict Cumberbatch was the first choice to play Stephen Strange in Doctor Strange, but he initially declined due to theatre commitments. The release date was pushed back from July to November 2016, so he was able to take the part
15. The doctor that patches up Black Widow in Winter Soldier is the director of the film, Joe Russo
14. Roxxon Energy can be seen on many vehicles and signs in all three Iron Man movies. Roxxon Oil Company is responsible for the death of Tony Stark's parents in the comics
13. Avengers: Age of Ultron has over 3000 visual effects shots, the most in any Marvel movie ever
12. Direct James Gunn brought a real raccoon to the set of Guardians of the Galaxy, to help capture movements and behaviours for Rocket. Gunn found the animal so helpful that he brought him to the LA red carpet premiere of the movie. How cute!
11. Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye) trained with Olympic archers to be able to use his left and right hands while shooting arrows, like his comic counterpart
10. The author of the Thor comic books, Michael Straczynski, makes a cameo in Thor as one of the men trying to pull Mjölnir out of the ground
9. On the set of The Avengers, Robert Downey Jr. hid food all throughout the set, and would casually take it out and eat it during takes. He did a great job hiding the snacks, since the crew could never find them all. They gave up, and let Robert continue snacking during scenes. A man after my own heart
8. Samuel L Jackson nearly missed being in the "Iron Man" sequel due to issues with contract negotiations. He later went on to score a nine picture deal, making him a large part of the MCU. I can't even imagine the Avengers without Nick Fury!
7. Robert Downey Jr. received a 10,000% pay increase between his role in the first "Iron Man", where he was paid $500,000, and the first "Avengers" movie, where he received $50 million
6. In Odin's vault in Thor, he has many Marvel relics, such as the Infinity Gauntlet, the tablet of Life and Time, and the Warlock's eye
5. Anthony Mackie didn't know he was being promoted to an Avenger, until he was watching "Age of Ultron" at its premiere! While filming the scene, he was unaware of the plot, and thought he was just filming a small part. What an awesome surprise
4. In The Avengers, the motion-capture creation of the Hulk went into such amazing detail that he and Mark Ruffalo actually share finger prints
3. Black Panther’s suit in Captain America: Civil War was completely CGI. They did a great job, I didn’t know that until now
2. Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn's brother Sean Gunn has two roles in the movies. He plays Yondu's second-in-charge Kraglin, and he also does all of the motion capture acting for Rocket Raccoon
1. Tom Holland, who plays Spider-Man in Civil War and Spider-Man: Homecoming, found out he got the role on Instagram. He was scrolling through his feed, when he noticed an article announcing who the new Spider-Man actor was. He opened it and discovered he was chosen! It was about a month after his audition. What a way to find out
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is full of so many numbers, Easter eggs, and crazy facts. A lot goes into making these movies that we all love, as you can see by some of the facts I’ve listed for you. I hope you learned some cool new things today; go out and share them with your friends and pretend like you knew these facts already.
A selection of some of the Marvel Cinematic Universe characters.
You might also be interested in:
http://www.gamersdecide.com/pc-game-news/10-characters-who-can-beat-superman
http://www.gamersdecide.com/pc-game-news/aquaman-10-most-interesting-facts-you-need-know-about-him
http://www.gamersdecide.com/pc-game-news/love-them-or-hate-them-marvel-has-made-over-10-billion-movies
