The MCU has a stacked year ahead of it as Phase 4 continues to chug along, with shows like Moon Knight and Ms. Marvel filling out Disney+'s catalog and blockbuster flicks getting audiences back into theaters. Before Black Panther's sequel releases toward the end of 2022, Marvel Studios is starting its cinematic run with the mind-bending Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness before catching up with Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman in Thor: Love and Thunder.
Both summer flicks have begun to ramp up their promotion to get fans excited about their imminent releases, with the Doctor Strange sequel about to begin its press tour and the fourth Thor solo film having released its first official trailer.
Now, a new survey revealed how excited audiences are about the MCU's upcoming offerings.
Marvel Tops Most Anticipated Summer Movies
Fandango conducted a survey asking over 6,000 moviegoers about their most-anticipated movies releasing this summer, with the results revealing two blockbuster Marvel movies topping the list.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness took the top spot, placing at number one, followed closely by Thor: Love and Thunder in second place.
Perhaps most staggering about these results is the fact that, as revealed by Fandango's Erik Davis, none of the respondents had seen the trailer for Thor: Love and Thunder prior to partaking in the survey, making its second-place position all the more impressive:
"What's impressive about #ThorLoveAndThunder being #2 is that everyone who was surveyed for this had not seen that first trailer yet. So THOR muscled into that second spot sight unseen! Since 2015, a Marvel Studios film has topped this list every year except 2017 (Wonder Woman)."
The full top ten list of the most anticipated summer 2022 movies can be seen below:
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
- Thor: Love and Thunder
- Jurassic World: Dominion
- Top Gun Maverick
- Minions: The Rise of Gru
- Lightyear
- Elvis
- Nope
- Bullet Train
- Downton Abbey: A New Era
Audiences Excited for Doctor Strange & Thor
Marvel fatigue be damned.
These impressive figures demonstrate that the MCU is going nowhere anytime soon and should be a hopeful sign for their box office outcomes.
Hopefully, the excitement for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Thor: Love and Thunder will encourage moviegoers to make repeat visits to the cinema to check out other upcoming summer flicks and push cinematic earnings closer to what they used to be, now that the world has opened up more.
Erik Davis' note about respondents not having seen the trailer for Thor: Love and Thunder before answering the survey is incredibly telling that Marvel Studios' new strategy of shortening promotion-to-release windows seems to be working effectively.
The fact that the fourth Thor flick's long-awaited trailer managed to maintain such excitement and intrigue before and after its release means that it is highly likely that Marvel will continue to employ this marketing method going into future MCU movies.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness premieres exclusively in theaters on May 6, followed shortly by Thor: Love and Thunder's theatrical release on July 8.
