For the last 15 years or so, Marvel movies have dominated the worldwide box office. The thrills and spills of the MCU have earned Disney enough cash over the years to ensure that the superhero juggernaut just keeps trucking on and on.

Deadpool and Wolverine is the studio’s only 2024 movie and has absolutely smashed expectations at the box office, breaking the billion-dollar worldwide milestone. As of right now, 11 films from the MCU have passed that landmark number, spanning a hugely successful decade for the franchise.

Let’s take a look at the most successful Marvel movies of all time, going chronologically through each film that has passed the billion-dollar milestone. These are the biggest of the big.

The Avengers (2012, $1.52bn/£1.18bn)

After four years of build-up, Marvel finally pulled the trigger on the moment we’d all been waiting for and the Avengers assembled on-screen for the first time. With Thor’s mischievous megalomaniac of a brother, Loki, trying to conquer Earth, the universe’s mightiest heroes came together to put him and his alien army in his place.

This was the first time that Marvel managed to cross the billion-dollar boundary and ushered in the golden era of the MCU. In its post-credits sequence, The Avengers introduced a purple-faced comic book character called Thanos. It’s fair to say he became quite important.

Iron Man 3 (2013, $1.22bn/£939m)

Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark was the lynchpin of the first decade of the MCU and the first Marvel character to make it through to a third solo movie. This story focused on Tony Stark turning away from the superhero business, but exploring a series of terrorist attacks connected to a mysterious figure known as The Mandarin.

Read more: Robert Downey Jr dramatically returns to Marvel as arch villain in Avengers: Doomsday (The Independent)

Directed by Shane Black, this was a divisive and unusual take on Stark, but one that audiences loved to the tunes of a massive box office haul. Marvel will hope that the pulling power of Downey Jr. will continue in his new guise as Doctor Doom.

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015, $1.41bn/£1.09bn)

Given the success of the first Avengers team-up, it was no surprise when the sequel also joined the billion-dollar club. Age of Ultron saw Tony Stark decide to build an artificial intelligence that could keep the world safe without the need for superheroes, only for that AI — named Ultron — to decide that the best way to keep the planet safe was to eradicate humanity.

Age of Ultron added new faces like Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch and the super-strong Vision to the Avengers roster, though it didn’t receive the same universal acclaim as its predecessor. Marvel was almost certainly too busy counting the cash to worry about that.

Captain America: Civil War (2016, $1.16bn/£892m)

It might have Captain America in the title, but there’s no denying the fact that Civil War was essentially Avengers 2.5 in all but name. Following the destructive conclusion of Age of Ultron, the US government has decided to regulate superheroes via the Sokovia Accords. Half of the Avengers think this is a worthwhile idea, while the others are dead against this sort of oversight. The battle lines are drawn.

Read more: Captain America 4 debuts first look at Anthony Mackie and Harrison Ford (Digital Spy)

Civil War contains terrific action — the airport sequence is an MCU highlight — and gave real thematic depth to the complex dynamics between the Avengers. It stands today as one of the best Marvel movies ever made, and the box office confirmed that audiences felt the same. You don’t crack a billion dollars without repeat business.

Black Panther (2018, $1.35bn/£1.04bn)

The late Chadwick Boseman made his first MCU appearance in Civil War, but stepped up into the leading man role shortly afterwards for Ryan Coogler’s outstanding Black Panther. Audiences got to delve into the technologically-advanced nation of Wakanda, with new king T’Challa pitted against usurper Erik Killmonger — played by Michael B. Jordan in one of the MCU’s best villain performances.

Read more: Letitia Wright Says Black Panther Has ‘a Lot Coming Up’ in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (Variety)

Boseman’s performance is regal and charismatic, with Coogler’s film also introducing a killer ensemble of new faces to the MCU. Letitia Wright’s Shuri instantly left Marvel geniuses like Tony Stark and Bruce Banner in the dust, while Lupita Nyong’o also made a huge impression as Nakia. But for Boseman’s tragic passing in 2020, this franchise could have become a cornerstone of the MCU.

Avengers: Infinity War (2018, $2.05bn/£1.59bn)

Six years after Thanos first turned to face the camera, Avengers: Infinity War finally paid off the mad titan’s story arc. The five Infinity Stones came together and the magenta maniac unleashed their power upon the universe with a snap of his fingers. Everything about Infinity War felt huge and climactic, leading up to that gut-punch of an ending.

By this point, the MCU felt like it had a cast of thousands — and all of them came together for this slice of pure spectacle. The wait of a year between Infinity War and its sequel felt like a long one, but fortunately there was something else to enjoy in between…

Captain Marvel (2019, $1.13bn/£874m)

Teased in the post-credits scene of Infinity War, the arrival of Carol Danvers brought one of the most powerful characters in Marvel Comics history to the big screen. Brie Larson entered the MCU in this 90s-set adventure that provided a real cosmic flavour, while also showcasing the dynamite chemistry between Larson and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury.

Read more: The Marvels Easter eggs and cameos explained (Yahoo Entertainment)

Unfortunately, the box office dominance achieved by Captain Marvel’s solo debut wasn’t matched when The Marvels came around in 2023. That one struggled and could mean that we’re unlikely to get another Carol Danvers appearance away from team-up stories.

Avengers: Endgame (2019, $2.80bn/£2.16bn)

Marvel probably should have just waved goodbye to its cinematic universe right here. Avengers: Endgame was the perfect pay-off to everything that had come before. It managed to live up to the epic stakes of the Infinity War cliffhanger and, via some smart deployment of time travel, the story allowed all of the Avengers to assemble at last in one of the most joyous set pieces in cinema history. The phrase “on your left” is guaranteed to give every superhero fan chills.

Endgame briefly took up the crown of being the highest-grossing movie ever made before an Avatar re-release put the Na’vi back on top of the box office mountain. However, that does nothing to erase the fact that Endgame was the MCU at the peak of its powers. Can it ever manage that again?

Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019, $1.13bn/£875m)

With the likes of Tony Stark and Steve Rogers now off the Marvel chessboard, Peter Parker — aka Spider-Man — is definitely the biggest name on the Marvel roster. Audiences still on a high from the satisfying finale of Endgame flocked to the multiplex just a few months later to see Spider-Man: Far From Home, in which a grieving Parker saw a high school trip completely derailed by superhero carnage.

Read more: Tom Holland offers cautious Spider-Man 4 update (Digital Spy)

This movie also introduced us all to the concept of the multiverse, albeit through the deceitful antics of Jake Gyllenhaal’s version of Mysterio. Little did we know that it would be the next Spidey movie just two years later that would mark the peak of the multiverse concept.

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021, $1.92bn/£1.48bn)

Spider-Man: No Way Home delivered the ultimate act of fan service. Not only did its multiversal storytelling bring back villain actors from across the various eras of Spider-Man, it also allowed Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield, and Tobey Maguire to share the screen as a trio of Peter Parkers from different universes. Before we all got cameo fatigue — with apologies to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness — this was genuinely thrilling.

No Way Home was a joyous slice of crowd-pleasing superhero entertainment and it earned the box office to match that, becoming the biggest non-Avengers movie in the history of the MCU.

Deadpool and Wolverine (2024, $1.14bn/£883m)

Superhero fans who have been following the MCU and its adjacent-but-separate franchises since the turn of the millennium will have adored Deadpool and Wolverine. These two characters finally got the chance to cross paths and, thanks to the Disney-Fox merger, they’re now able to exist alongside the heroes and villains of the MCU, as well as with each other.

Read more: What does Deadpool and Wolverine’s success mean for the MCU? (Yahoo Entertainment)

The movie has been taking down box office records with merry abandon and now stands as the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time, dethroning the DC movie Joker. That smackdown is set for another round when the Joker sequel Folie à Deux lands in cinemas later this year. But at the moment, Wade and Logan sit at the top of the mountain.