Last updated January 1st

Update: Now that it's 2019, the winners are in!

The 2018 calendar saw a total of nine major superhero movie releases. Now that all of them have been released in theaters, we tracked their box office stats to see if any of them overcame the juggernauts that are the MCU's two biggest efforts of the year. We're in the home stretch now, but there's still one big weekend and holiday left before the final tally.

Disney/Marvel may be done for the year, but both Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War have done significant heavy lifting at the box office already. A pair of family-friendly crowd-pleasers in Incredibles 2 and Teen Titans Go! To the Movies may surprise you with their box office performance, maybe not in raw cash tallies but in some other metrics. We'll be looking at totals for the best opening day, best opening weekend, and best overall performance; we'll also be factoring in domestic, international, and total amounts. One other metric that has less to do with money and more to do with audience enjoyment is the retention percentage, or how much of a movie's audience it retained from one week to the next. Anything over 50% is a pretty good indication that audiences are willing to see a movie after opening weekend and that word of mouth is generally positive.

Here's a reminder of the superhero movies that opened this year:

(*The PG-13 re-release of Once Upon a Deadpool box office figures will be included in the original sequel's theatrical total but also shown in a separate standalone entry so you can see how much the reframed "holiday" cut has made.)

We'll be updating this article as the new movies come out throughout the fall, but you can get a good idea of how the Superhero Movies Box Office Race of 2018 stacks up right now!

Best Opening Day (Domestic)

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  • Avengers: Infinity War - $106,334,939
  • Black Panther - $75,941,146
  • Incredibles 2 - $71,260,321
  • Deadpool 2 - $53,034,421
  • Ant-Man and the Wasp - $33,725,082
  • Venom - $32,750,000
  • Aquaman - $28,000,000
  • Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse - $12,665,081
  • Teen Titans Go! To the Movies - $4,239,719
  • Once Upon a Deadpool* - $910,346

Best Opening Weekend (Domestic)

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  • Avengers: Infinity War - $257,698,183
  • Black Panther - $202,003,951
  • Incredibles 2 - $182,687,905
  • Deadpool 2 - $125,507,153
  • Venom - $80,030,000
  • Ant-Man and the Wasp - $75,812,205
  • Aquaman - $72,100,000
  • Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse - $35,400,000
  • Teen Titans Go! To the Movies - $10,411,189
  • Once Upon a Deadpool - $2,600,000

Best Opening Weekend (International)

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  • Avengers: Infinity War - $382,823,108
  • Deadpool 2 - $174,879,204
  • Black Panther - $169,363,580
  • Venom - $125,200,000
  • Aquaman - $94,200,000
  • Ant-Man and the Wasp - $85,891,514
  • Incredibles 2 - $53,139,071*
  • Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse - $21,000,000
  • Teen Titans Go! To the Movies - $1,100,000
  • Once Upon a Deadpool - $1,007,302

Best Opening Weekend (Worldwide)

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  • Avengers: Infinity War - $640,521,291
  • Black Panther - $371,367,531
  • Deadpool 2 - $300,386,357
  • Incredibles 2 - $235,826,976
  • Venom - $205,230,000
  • Aquaman∫ˆ- $163,400,000
  • Ant-Man and the Wasp - $161,703,719
  • Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse - $56,400,000
  • Teen Titans Go! To the Movies - $11,511,189
  • Once Upon a Deadpool - $3,607,302

Best Overall Box Office Performance to Date (Domestic)

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  • Black Panther - $700,059,566
  • Avengers: Infinity War - $678,815,482
  • Incredibles 2 - $608,581,744
  • Deadpool 2 – $324,505,097
  • Ant-Man and the Wasp - $216,648,740
  • Venom - $213,205,181
  • Aquaman- $189,375,000
  • Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse - $104,148,730
  • Teen Titans Go! To the Movies - $29,790,236
  • Once Upon a Deadpool - $5,739,257

*Includes box office figures from Once Upon a Deadpool PG-13 re-release

Best Overall Box Office Performance to Date (International)

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  • Avengers: Infinity War - $1,369,894,668
  • Black Panther - $646,853,595
  • Venom - $641,951,726
  • Incredibles 2 - $634,017,081
  • Aquaman - $562,400,000
  • Deadpool 2 - $417,077,804
  • Ant-Man and the Wasp - $406,025,399
  • Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse - $109,600,000
  • Teen Titans Go! To the Movies - $22,300,000
  • Once Upon a Deadpool - $1,007,302

Best Overall Box Office Performance to Date (Worldwide)

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  • Avengers: Infinity War - $2,048,710,150
  • Black Panther - $1,346,913,161
  • Incredibles 2 - $1,242,598,825
  • Venom - $855,156,907
  • Aquaman - $751,775,000
  • Deadpool 2 - $741,582,901
  • Ant-Man and the Wasp - $622,674,139
  • Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse - $213,748,730
  • Teen Titans Go! To the Movies - $52,090,236
  • Once Upon a Deadpool - $6,746,559

Best Audience Retention

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  • Aquaman - 77.4%
  • Black Panther - 55.3%
  • Teen Titans Go! To the Movies - 49.3%
  • Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse - 47.2%
  • Incredibles 2 - 46.3%
  • Avengers: Infinity War - 44.5%
  • Venom - 44.5%
  • Ant-Man and the Wasp - 42.8%
  • Deadpool 2 - 34.6%
  • Once Upon a Deadpool - 29.8%

And the Winner Is ...

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The finally tally stands as:

  • Aquaman (1)
  • Black Panther (1)
  • Avengers: Infinity War (6)

Clearly, the biggest superhero movie in cinematic history is the winner of the 2018 Superhero Box Office title. But it wasn't a clean sweep! Kudos for Aquaman for being this year's Crowdpleaser, and to Black Panther for boasting the best domestic box office (in addition to a ton of other achievements).

Will Avengers: Endgame retain the box office crown once 2019 has well and truly wrapped? It'll have to do battle against Captain Marvel, Shazam!, Dark Phoenix, Spider-Man: Far from Home, The New Mutants, Hellboy, and Glass. It's gonna be a good year, no matter who wins!

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Image via Marvel Studios, IMAX