- Who
- Captain Marvel
- What
- 1,129,727,388 US dollar(s)
- Where
- Not Applicable ()
- When
The highest-grossing superhero movie with a female in the lead or title role is Captain Marvel (USA, 2019), starring Brie Larson as Carol Danvers/Vers/Captain Marvel, which earned $1,129,727,388 (£813,049,000) at the worldwide box-office as of 11 March 2021. Marvel Studios' billion-dollar blockbuster tells the story of Carol Danvers, whose superhero powers are called upon when Earth becomes caught in the middle of a war between two alien races.
The movie was co-written and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, and is the first female-led superhero film from Marvel Studios. The titular character's first appearance in a Marvel comic was in January 1967 (Marvel Super-Heroes #12, written by Stan Lee and drawn by Gene Colan, although a superhero of the same name had been created in 1939 by writer Bill Parker and artist CC Beck for Whiz Comics no. 2 (Fawcett Comics, cover date February 1940). The popularity of the Whiz comic book led to the cinematic release of Adventures of Captain Marvel (USA, 1941), the first chance that moviegoers got to see a comic-book adaptation in which an ordinary man is transformed into a costumed hero with superhuman powers. A 10-year legal wrangle with National Comics (now DC Comics) over similarities between their Superman and Captain Marvel resulted in Fawcett finally dropping their Captain Marvel books. Now owned by Marvel Comics, the superhero has undergone various transformations over the years and numerous characters - both male and female - have taken up the mantle of Captain Marvel. In this latest movie incarnation, Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) must prevent an invasion of Earth by the shapeshifting Skrulls by becoming Captain Marvel.
Second behind Captain Marvel in the female superhero cinematic league table is DC Comics' Wonder Woman (Warner Bros., USA, 2017), which grossed $818,058,221 (£588,745,000) globally as of 11 March 2021.
