22 Movies in 11 Years Came Down to One Snap

Avengers: Endgame opened on April 26, 2019, and broke every box office record that existed, grossing $2.8 billion worldwide. It was the conclusion of a 22-film saga that had started with Iron Man in 2008 — an experiment in serialized blockbuster storytelling that was either the greatest achievement in Hollywood history or the thing that broke Hollywood forever, depending on who you asked. When the portals opened and every character who'd been dusted in Infinity War reappeared, theaters erupted in a way that hadn't been seen since the original Star Wars. Grown adults cried. The collective experience of seeing a story that ambitious land its ending was genuinely unprecedented. But Endgame was also, in retrospect, a peak. The MCU continued afterward — more films, more shows, more content — but the sense of cultural event never returned. Superhero fatigue set in. Audiences moved on. Endgame was the last time a movie felt like a global moment rather than a content release.