The Marvel Cinematic Universe started off small but it's now an unstoppable juggernaut, something which is evident from how much money
Avengers: Endgame has earned. That's good news for the actors who star in these movies, of course, and so it probably won't surprise you to learn that a number of them were included on a list of the top celebrity earners over the past year.
They are: Chris Hemsworth, Robert Downey, Jr, Chris Evans, Bradley Cooper, Paul Rudd, and Scarlett Johansson, all of whom have earned a combined total of $340 million.
Surprisingly, the member of Earth's Mightiest Heroes in first place is Hemsworth as he's earned a whopping $76.4 million. Not all of that comes courtesy of the MCU, of course, (he also starred in
Men In Black: International this year) but a good chunk of it probably will have.
Next up is Robert Downey Jr. - who hasn't really done much outside of the MCU - with $66 million. Then, there's Bradley Cooper ($57 million), Scarlett Johansson ($56 million), Chris Evans ($43.5 million), and Paul Rudd ($41 million).
Most of this money came from back-end deals, as someone like Downey Jr. will get around 8% of the profits, and considering the fact that Avengers: Endgame's profit is over $700 million...well, you can do the math! Even someone like Cooper gets 1%, so being part of the MCU is very profitable indeed...
Hit the "View List" button to see which actors have
received the most screentime in the first 22 MCU movies!
15. Nick Fury
Screentime: 1 Hour, 16 Minutes
Movies Appeared In: Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Avengers: Infinity War, Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame
Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury has been there since day one and while he mostly made cameos to begin with, that quickly changed with
The Avengers and the S.H.I.E.L.D. Director obviously benefited with a leading role in
Captain Marvel despite that team-up franchise later putting him on the back burner.
14. Gamora
Screentime: 1 Hour, 27 Minutes
Movies Appeared In: Guardians of the Galaxy, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame
Zoe Saldana has played two versions of Gamora in the MCU and while her future remains uncertain, it's good to see how much time Marvel Studios has devoted to telling her story over the years.
That was cut tragically short with
Avengers: Infinity War but I'm sure James Gunn will have good fun returning to the character's past when he gets his hand on that earlier version of her in
Vol. 3.
13. Loki
Screentime: 1 Hour, 32 Minutes
Movies Appeared In: Thor, The Avengers, Thor: The Dark World, Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame
The God of Mischief has become a staple of this shared world in recent years and has plagued both Earth's Mightiest Heroes and his brother, Thor. His story on the big screen seemingly came to an end thanks to Thanos but we can look forward to it continuing on the small one when Disney+ launches.
12. Captain Marvel
Screentime: 1 Hour, 36 Minutes
Movies Appeared In: Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame
It's pretty surprising to see Brie Larson's Carol Danvers make the cut here, especially when she did very little in
Avengers: Endgame. However, Marvel Studios wisely kept the focus on the HERo in her solo movie and that might explain why she's received so much screentime over the course of two movies!
11. Rocket
Screentime: 1 Hour, 36 Minutes
Movies Appeared In: Guardians of the Galaxy, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame
Beating Captain Marvel by just a few seconds, Rocket has become a fan-favourite character in the MCU and has now had sizeable roles across both the
Guardians of the Galaxy and
Avengers franchises. While he's now returned to the latter, it would be an awful lot of fun seeing him assemble alongside Earth's Mightiest Heroes again, especially after striking up such a friendship with the team.
10. War Machine
Screentime: 1 Hour, 41 Minutes
Movies Appeared In: Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Iron Man 3, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame
War Machine has never appeared in his own movie but after playing a key role in the
Iron Man movies (yes, we're counting the Terrence Howard version, as well), he made the leap to the world of The Avengers and was instrumental in both
Civil War and the battle against Thanos when he invaded Earth.
9. Doctor Strange
Screentime: 1 Hour, 48 Minutes
Movies Appeared In: Doctor Strange, Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame
The Sorcerer Supreme is clearly going to be a key part of the MCU as we move into Phase 4 and he's already had a pretty significant impact since arriving at the end of 2016. As well as starring in a solo movie, Benedict Cumberbatch popped up in
Thor: Ragnarok before taking on a key role in defeating Thanos.
8. Spider-Man
Screentime: 1 Hour, 55 Minutes
Movies Appeared In: Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame
We never thought we'd see the wall-crawler in the MCU but Marvel Studios made it happen and have made good use of the near two hours worth of screentime he's had in this shared world.
While he's spent most of his time working alongside Earth's Mightiest Heroes (he was even made an official Avenger in
Infinity War), we can expect this number to go up after
Far From Home.
7. Star-Lord
Screentime: 1 Hour, 56 Minutes
Movies Appeared In: Guardians of the Galaxy, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame
Peter Quill is arguably the lead of the
Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, so it's no wonder he places so highly here. His meeting with Iron Man, Spider-Man, and Doctor Strange helps matters, of course, but the fact he was dusted means he only played a very minimal role in this year's
Avengers: Endgame.
6. Black Widow
Screentime: 2 Hours, 12 Minutes
Movies Appeared In: Iron Man 2, The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Infinity War, Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame
There aren't a huge number of female characters on this list but at least Black Widow nearly cracks the top five! After a rather underwhelming introduction in
Iron Man 2, Natasha went on to become an integral part of both
The Avengers and
Captain America franchises and while the character died in Endgame, we can expect to see her get at least one more adventure in that origin story.
5. Ant-Man
Screentime: 2 Hours, 27 Minutes
Movies Appeared In: Ant-Man, Captain America: Civil War, Ant-Man And The Wasp, Avengers: Endgame
For a hero many wrote off as a D-Lister when it was first revealed he would be getting his own movie, Ant-Man has done pretty well for himself! He has two solo movies and played very important roles in both
Captain America: Civil War and, more vitally,
Avengers: Endgame. Assuming the team assembles again somewhere down the line, we can surely Scott Lang to be part of proceedings.
4. The Hulk
Screentime: 2 Hours, 41 Minutes
Movies Appeared In: The Incredible Hulk, The Avengers, Iron Man 3, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Infinity War, Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame
The Jade Giant has only had one solo movie and, well, he was played by a different actor! Marvel Studios has made good use of him in the world of
The Avengers, though, and he made a surprisingly awesome co-star for Thor in his last adventure. What comes next for the Jade Giant isn't clear right now.
3. Thor
Screentime: 3 Hours, 49 Minutes
Movies Appeared In: Thor, The Avengers, Thor: The Dark World, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Doctor Strange, Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame
The God of Thunder may have been benched for
Captain America: Civil War but the Russo Brothers gave him a meaty part in
Avengers: Infinity War. It's pretty incredible to look back at the journey he's taken and of all the characters listed here, I think it's fair to say he's undergone the biggest changes.
2. Captain America
Screentime: 4 Hours, 36 Minutes
Movies Appeared In: Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Avengers: Infinity War, Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame
Chris Evans was so damn good as Captain America, it's genuinely heartbreaking that his time as the character is now at an end. Still, we can't complain too much because as well as getting his own trilogy, we've seen him in all of
The Avengers movies and he's even made pretty hilarious cameos elsewhere!
1. Iron Man
Screentime: 6 Hours, 41 Minutes
Movies Appeared In: Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, The Avengers, Iron Man 3, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame
Who else did you expect to see here?
Ever since Iron Man exceeded expectations, Marvel Studios made Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark a priortiy and he's been at the forefront of the marketing for every
Avengers movie. The character has also popped up in other franchises and the actor was famously paid a huge amount of money for a very small amount of screentime in
Spider-Man: Homecoming to please Sony Pictures.
Many thanks to Reddit's ecomcodes for the figures used here.