You know, actually, Dr. Strange doesn't seem like a bad bet.
The thing that strikes me is that the reason Iron Man became such a huge flagship property for Marvel Studios has a lot to do with the audience's reaction to RDJ as Tony Stark. It's similar to the audience's reaction to Johnny Depp as Capt. Jack Sparrow.
I mean, the movies were fun, but I don't think either film would have hit the stratosphere or become such a sure-bet franchise if you hadn't had those extremely charismatic leads that everybody goes ga-ga for.
The problem seems to be that to some extent, you can't quite predict who the next one is going to be. Audiences have really liked Hemsworth as Thor and Evans as Cap, but not to the same huge degree as people seem to love RDJ. (Though I guess we'll start to see in the near future whether Hems' or Evans' faces are enough to increase the box office of other things they're in.)
In fact, I almost think that it's always serendipity, not planning. WB thought that they were casting a big, charismatic lead in Ryan Reynolds for GL, but despite his pre-existing popularity, it didn't work out that way. (Though to be fair, many critics praised his performance while panning the rest of the movie.)
I like the chances of a Dr. Strange movie because if they cast the right guy, who gives the right performance, then I can see someone in that role hitting it off with the audience similarly to RDJ's Stark and Depp's Capt. Jack. (I think the latter is an even better comparison, because RDJ's Stark is a conventional charismatic bad-boy, whereas Depp's Capt. Jack is a real "...what the hell did I just watch?" performance that luckily charmed a lot of people.)
That said, any of those properties could break out, with the right break-out performance from the lead. Depends on who the lead is in Ant-Man (or if it offers a great buddy-film dynamic from multiple leads), or who the lead is in Black Panther (does he become the next Will Smith; and let me be clear, I don't want to see a BP movie done as a comedy, AT ALL, I'm just saying, in terms of the audience attachment to the lead).
t:. I only put together the three covers. They don't fit perfectly together, and that was the best I could do.
