Captain America, a superhero created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby who appears in comic books produced by Marvel Comics, has appeared in multiple films since the character's inception in 1940. Republic Pictures released a fifteen-part Captain America serial film in 1944 that was the first film to feature a Marvel Comics character, though it deviated significantly from the comic book source material. Two made-for-TV films, Captain America and Captain America II: Death Too Soon, aired on the American broadcast television station CBS in 1979. A feature-length film directed by Albert Pyun was originally planned for a wide theatrical release in 1990, but received only a brief theatrical release in the United Kingdom before being released in the United States as a direct-to-video film.
Marvel began to produce films independently in 2005, launching a shared universe of superhero films referred to as the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). A trilogy of Captain America films written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely and starring Chris Evans as the title character were produced as part of the MCU in the 2010s: Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), and Captain America: Civil War (2016). The character also appeared in the Avengers series of crossover films, beginning with The Avengers in 2012. A fourth MCU film starring Anthony Mackie as Captain America, Captain America: Brave New World, is slated for release in 2025.
While pre-MCU Captain America films often faced troubled productions or limited audiences, the MCU Captain America films have been critical and commercial successes. They have collectively grossed over $2.2 billion worldwide, with Civil War being the highest-grossing film of 2016. The Winter Soldier was nominated for Best Visual Effects at the Academy Awards in 2014.