We've been taking the MCU for granted

I'll give you adjusted for inflation/original gross
X-Men: The Last Stand $323,098,200 $234,362,462 5/26/06
X2: X-Men United $321,889,800 $214,949,694 5/2/03
X-Men $263,528,100 $157,299,717 7/14/00
X-Men: Days of Future Past $254,041,000 $233,921,534 5/23/14
Logan (2017) $230,881,800 $226,277,068 3/3/17
X-Men Origins: Wolverine $217,740,500 $179,883,157 5/1/09
X-Men: First Class $164,209,300 $146,408,305 6/3/11
X-Men: Apocalypse $160,860,200 $155,442,489 5/27/16
The Wolverine $152,570,000 $132,556,852 7/26/13

First Class came in below the first X-men 

The Wolverine made less than Origins.

Diminishing returns isn't a good thing.

Marvel's The Avengers $694,237,400 $623,357,910 5/4/12
Black Panther $688,739,000 $700,059,566 2/16/18
Avengers: Infinity War BV $653,950,200 $678,815,482 4/27/18
Avengers: Age of Ultron $483,348,000 $459,005,868 5/1/15
Iron Man 3 $441,109,200 $409,013,994 5/3/13
Captain America: Civil War $422,199,800 $408,084,349 5/6/16
Captain Marvel $401,380,800 $401,380,764 3/8/19
Iron Man $400,443,200 $318,412,101 5/2/08
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 $393,315,500 $389,813,101 5/5/17
14 Guardians of the Galaxy $371,833,400 $333,176,600 8/1/14
Iron Man 2 $358,204,600 $312,433,331 5/7/10
Spider-Man: Homecoming $337,886,200 $334,201,140 7/7/17
Thor: Ragnarok $309,920,300 $315,058,289 11/3/17
Captain America: The Winter Soldier $281,694,500 $259,766,572 4/4/14
Doctor Strange BV $238,975,400 $232,641,920 11/4/16
Thor: The Dark World $223,410,000 $206,362,140 11/8/13
Ant-Man and the Wasp $221,538,700 $216,648,740 7/6/18
Thor $202,876,700 $181,030,624 5/6/11
Captain America: The First Avenger $200,933,700 $176,654,505 7/22/11
Ant-Man $197,108,000 $180,202,163 7/17/15
The Incredible Hulk $169,541,300 $134,806,913 6/13/08

The origin movie tends to make the least while subsequent films build their audience.

Outside of Avengers in 2012. That was insane. Theaters were caught totally unprepared for that one. I remember friends turned away opening weekend because there were no seats. The studio kept adjusting their estimate up.

But it means Marvel understands their audience.

I don’t really believe that the MCU always plays it safe. I mean sometimes, but not always.

But surely you’d have to admit that the idea and execution of the MCU as a whole was a risk. Phase one especially. The idea they were going to make all these movies about different individiduals, set within the same universe, and lead it into a team up film was a pretty big risk. And then have two more phases ALL leading up to a two part event film was an incredibly risky plan.