Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase One

**Phase One** of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is a group of American superhero movies produced by Marvel Studios based on characters that appear in publications by Marvel Comics. The phase began in 2008, with the release of _Iron Man_, starring Robert Downey Jr., followed by _The Incredible Hulk_ (2008), starring Edward Norton. In 2010, _Iron Man 2_ was released, with Downey Jr. returning as the character. In the movie, Scarlett Johansson makes her first appearance as Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow. A year later, in 2011, both _Thor_ and _Captain America: The First Avenger_ were released, starring Chris Hemsworth and Chris Evans, respectively. The former also marks the first appearance of Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton / Hawkeye.

Downey Jr., Johansson, Hemsworth, Evans, and Renner all returned to star in the 2012 movie _The Avengers_, while Mark Ruffalo replaced Norton as Bruce Banner / The Hulk. Phase One, along with Phase Two and Phase Three, make up "The Infinity Saga".

## Movies

|scope="col"|Movies|scope="col"|U.S. release date|scope="col"|Director|scope="col"|Screenwriter(s)|scope="col"|Producer(s)|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
||Jon Favreau|Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby and Art Marcum & Matt Holloway|Avi Arad and Kevin Feige|||||||
||Louis Leterrier|Zak Penn|Avi Arad, Gale Anne Hurd, and Kevin Feige|||||||
||Jon Favreau|Justin Theroux|rowspan="4"|Kevin Feige||||||
||Kenneth Branagh|Ashley Edward Miller & Zack Stentz and Don Payne||||||||
||Joe Johnston|Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely||||||||
||colspan="2"|Joss Whedon||||||||

## Short movies

|scope="col"|Movies|scope="col"|U.S. release date|scope="col"|Director|scope="col"|Screenwriter|scope="col"|Producer|scope="col"|Home media release|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
||rowspan="2"|Leythum|rowspan="3"|Eric Pearson|rowspan="3"|Kevin Feige|_Thor_|||||
||_Captain America: The First Avenger_|||||||||||
||Louis D'Esposito|_Marvel's The Avengers_||||||||||

## Recurring cast and characters

|rowspan="2" scope="col" style="width: 15%;"|Character|colspan="2" scope="colgroup"|2008|scope="colgroup"|2010|colspan="2" scope="colgroup"|2011|scope="colgroup"|2012|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
||Edward Norton Lou Ferrigno|colspan="3"|Mark Ruffalo|||||||
|colspan="3"|Jeremy Renner||Jeremy Renner|||||||
|Clark Gregg||colspan="2"|Clark Gregg||Clark Gregg|||||
|Samuel L. Jackson||Samuel L. Jackson|Samuel L. Jackson|colspan="2"|Samuel L. Jackson|||||
|colspan="3"|Tom Hiddleston||Tom Hiddleston|||||||
|Gwyneth Paltrow||Gwyneth Paltrow|colspan="2"|Gwyneth Paltrow||||||
|Terrence Howard||Don Cheadle|colspan="3"|||||||
|colspan="4"|colspan="2"|Chris Evans||||||||
|colspan="2"|Scarlett Johansson|colspan="2"|Scarlett Johansson|||||||
|colspan="3"|Stellan Skarsgård||Stellan Skarsgård|||||||
|Gerard Sanders||John Slattery||Dominic Cooper||||||
|Robert Downey Jr.|Robert Downey Jr.|Robert Downey Jr.|colspan="2"|Robert Downey Jr.||||||
|colspan="3"|Chris Hemsworth||Chris Hemsworth|||||||

### Box office

_The Avengers_ was the first movie of the MCU to reach $1 billion.
|scope="col" rowspan="2"|Movie|scope="col" rowspan="2"|U.S. release date|scope="col" colspan="3" class="sortable"|Box office gross|scope="col" colspan="2" style="text: wrap;" class="unsortable"|All-time ranking|scope="col" rowspan="2"|Budget|scope="col" rowspan="2" class="unsortable"||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
||$319,034,126|$266,762,121|$585,796,247|89|190|$140 million||||||
||$134,806,913|$129,964,083|$264,770,996|494|625|$137.5–150 million||||||
||$312,433,331|$311,500,000|$623,933,331|95|172|$170–200 million||||||
||$181,030,624|$268,295,994|$449,326,618|280|290|$150 million||||||
||$176,654,505|$193,915,269|$370,569,774|298|394|$140 million||||||
||$623,357,910|$897,180,626|$1,520,538,536|12|10|$220 million||||||

### Critical and public response

|rowspan="2"|Movie|colspan="2"|Rotten Tomatoes|rowspan="2"|Metacritic|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|align="center"|94% (281 reviews)|align="center"|90% (70 reviews)|align="center"|79 (38 reviews)|
|align="center"|67% (238 reviews)|align="center"|53% (58 reviews)|align="center"|61 (38 reviews) <includeonly>| </includeonly>|
|align="center"|72% (302 reviews)|align="center"|61% (71 reviews)|align="center"|57 (40 reviews) <includeonly>| </includeonly>|
|align="center"|77% (291 reviews)|align="center"|67% (72 reviews)|align="center"|57 (40 reviews) <includeonly>| </includeonly>|
|align="center"|79% (273 reviews)|align="center"|74% (69 reviews)|align="center"|66 (43 reviews) <includeonly>| </includeonly>|
|align="center"|91% (363 reviews)|align="center"|85% (78 reviews)|align="center"|69 (43 reviews) <includeonly>| </includeonly>|

## Infobox (film)

- **italic title**: no
- **starring**: _#Recurring cast and characters, See below_
- **studio**: Marvel Studios
- **released**: 2008–2012
- **country**: United States
- **language**: English
- **budget**: **Total (6 movies):**
$1 billion
- **gross**: **Total (6 movies):**
$3.813 billion