ROTTEN TOMATOES: Box Office Guru Wrapup: Iron Man Soars to Eye-Popping $104M Debut

Box Office Guru Wrapup: Iron Man Soars to Eye-Popping $104M Debut

Marvel holds audiences in an Iron grip.

by Gitesh Pandya | May 04, 2008

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Paramount Pictures and its baby mama Marvel Studios were the proud parents of an explosive new movie franchise as the super hero film Iron Man blasted off to jaw-dropping ticket sales around the world officially kicking off the summer blockbuster season. The comic book actioner led the overall box office to its biggest weekend of the year and accounted for two-thirds of all business in the top ten. Opening in second with commendable numbers was the wedding-themed romantic comedy Made of Honor which gave women not interested in flying metal men something to see. Following a dismal spring season, the summer got started with a bang.

Iron Man crushed its competitors this weekend with a stunning estimate of $100.8M in ticket sales over the Friday-to-Sunday period delivering the tenth largest opening of all-time and the second highest ever for a non-sequel after the $114.8M of 2002's Marvel Comics sibling Spider-Man. The Robert Downey Jr. flick began its run on Thursday at 8pm with advance showtimes grossing $3.5M in the four-hour period ending at midnight, the official start of Friday. That amounted to a gargantuan $104.3M in just over three days easily outdistancing industry expectations which were in the $70-90M range. Co-starring Jeff Bridges, Terrence Howard, and Gwyneth Paltrow, the Jon Favreau-directed blockbuster averaged a stellar $24,543 from a saturation release in 4,105 theaters.

Overseas, Iron Man invaded 57 territories and made off with a terrific $96.8M putting the global launch at a humongous $201M since the first international openings on Wednesday.

In North America, Friday took off with a massive $35.1M in grosses (including shows beginning at midnight on Thursday night). Sales inched up 7% on Saturday to $37.5M which was impressive since many super hero films see their numbers decline on Saturday. The studio is estimating a Sunday drop of only 25% to $28.1M. Audience research showed that an understandable 65% were male while 55% were over 25. Reports on Iron Man's production cost have varied from $140M to $180M, but the negative cost should be easily recouped given the tremendous response worldwide.

In the Marvel stable, only its crown jewel Spider-Man has seen a better franchise debut with the first film's opening amounting to roughly $140M at today's ticket prices. Adjusting for 2008 prices, opening weekends for other first installments from the comic giant would be approximately $71M for 2000's X-Men, $73M for 2003's The Hulk, and $62M for 2005's Fantastic Four. Iron Man's opening zoomed a good $30-40M higher.

Most were not expecting a nine-digit debut from the Tony Stark pic since the Iron Man character is not as well-known as other super heroes like Spider-Man, Batman, or even The Hulk. But a massive marketing push, overwhelmingly positive reviews, and a release on the first weekend of May when no other event films were out helped it to dominate the attention of movie fans everywhere. For Paramount it was the second largest debut in company history trailing only the $121.6M of last May's animated sequel Shrek the Third that it released for DreamWorks. The studio's previous high for a live-action film was with last July's Transformers (another DreamWorks winner) which opened to a Friday-to-Sunday score of $70.5M after a mid-week bow.

Iron Man's success also comes as good news to Marvel since this is its first fully financed and produced picture as part of its new arrangement where it will retain more of the risks and rewards for its future super hero flicks. It would be shocking not to see at least two sequels come out of this franchise so the profits will flow for years to come.

Most multiplexes played Iron Man on multiple screens in order to fulfill intense demand, however Paramount did not report the total number of prints in the marketplace. Looking at recent May behemoths, Spider-Man 3 and 2005's Star Wars Episode III opened with 10,000 and 9,400 prints respectively. It would not be surprising if Iron Man seized control of more than 9,000 total screens as well this weekend.

Despite absorbing so much demand upfront, Iron Man boasts indicators that it could have decent legs. Critics have poured on the praise leading to a staggering 94% score on RottenTomatoes.com which is the best of any wide release this year and tops among all super hero flicks ever. Plus exit polls taken this weekend by CinemaScore have delivered a fantastic A grade making the metal guy one of those rare action movies to be a winner with both critics and ticket buyers alike. Last year Spider-Man 3 met with lukewarm word-of-mouth after its record bow which accounted for a whopping 45% of its eventual final domestic haul of $336.5M. Opening weekend percentages for other high profile openers from the start of May include 28% for Spider-Man, 34% for 2001's The Mummy Returns, and 40% for X2: X-Men United. Given Iron Man's strong buzz and the calendar ahead, a final domestic tally of $250M is certainly within reach.

Thanks to Iron Man, eight of the top ten opening weekends of all-time have come from the lucrative month of May. The explosive launch of the Stark pic will be good for the entire industry since millions of moviegoers this weekend got to see trailers for upcoming summer films and may be getting back into the habit of visiting their local multiplexes.

Patrick Dempsey, who like Robert Downey Jr. began his career as a teen hunk in the 1980s, found himself one step behind the guest of honor with his new romantic comedy Made of Honor which grossed an estimated $15.5M during its opening weekend. The PG-13 film about a man who falls for his recently-engaged female best friend averaged a solid $5,680 from 2,729 locations. Sony positioned the critically-panned offering as a counter-programming choice against Iron Man for women uninterested in comic book antics. Not surprisingly, females made up 68% of the crowd according to studio research while 62% were over the age of 25. The Grey's Anatomy star's new film carried a budget of just under $40M

Despite new competition from a tentpole juggernaut and a hit romantic comedy, the Universal laugher Baby Mama held up very well in its second weekend dropping 41% to an estimated $10.3M. With a solid $32.3M in ten days, the Tina Fey-Amy Poehler pic looks set to find its way to around $55M.

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(1-20 of 72 posts) | Reply

jokerboy1991 writes:
on May 04 2008 05:59 PM

Cool, I loved IRON MAN! I hope this means we will be getting that sequal in 2010!

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John Z. Delorean writes:
on May 04 2008 06:06 PM

I'm gonna go see it a third time next weekend. Let's keep Ironman going for just the simple fact that he crushed that retread Made of Honor. Speed Racer will definitely get it's money but let's make sure Ashton and Cameron don't sneak in with that Vegas movie at number 2 next week.

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martinscorsese25 writes:
on May 04 2008 06:07 PM

iron man rocked my world!! robert downey jr. takes over the movie just like daniel day-lewis has taken over "There will Be Blood". and oh, gweneth paltrow is still freakin hot.... though there was no kiss in the movie with her, i'd rather watch a bed scene with gweneth rather than the reporter...LOL

(Reply to this)

martinscorsese25 writes:
on May 04 2008 06:08 PM

and where is the third trailer of The Dark Knight??!!!!

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Bloody Mathias writes:
on May 04 2008 06:16 PM

Martinscorsese, look for RT to report that first thing Monday.

Oh and by the way, awesome for Iron Man.

Iron Man might join Indy and TDK in the $300 million club.

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krauser12 writes:
on May 04 2008 06:26 PM

the new dark knight trailer has been up since well..today, watch for the quick frame on aaron eckhart!

http://www.whysoserious.com/happytrails/trailer.htm

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Slayer Of Light writes:
on May 04 2008 06:43 PM

Wow, that new TDK trailer looks F%$king amazing! Now I'm really glad that Heath Ledger was chosen to play the part, he looks really psychotic and twisted in this, like the Joker should be. And I'm glad Iron Man did well. Robert Downey Jr. is a fantastic actor and now that the weekend movie rush is over, I can finally go see it :P

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berzo12 writes:
on May 04 2008 07:09 PM

the quick frame of Aaron Eckhart made me nerdgasm(if u pause it and stare u will understand why) about as hard as the end of the credits of Iron Man(yes I said nerdgasm). Im glad the ol' shellhead pulled big numbers and a truly great RT rating. I expect Indy and TDk to pull bigger numbers but still amazing non-the-less for a "B-list" comic book character. And I will give big props to Faverau for pulling this off as well as he did (Zathura anyone?).

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terrible1 writes:
on May 04 2008 07:43 PM

sweet...iron man rocked and the new batman trailer and indy trailer were worthing seeing alone. faverau did a great job! watch the movie past the credits too for those who havnt alread heard.

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TheCaptain of TeamLoyalty writes:
on May 04 2008 07:48 PM

Iron man is not a b list character, hell he has almost always been the leader of the avengers, he is the man responsible for the death of Captain America, he is the head of shield, he was the secretary of defense, he is an A character, hell he is more important than the Hulk OR Spiderman.

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IMAmoose24 writes:
on May 04 2008 07:53 PM

Of course they don't show the new 'The Dark Knight' trailer if front of MY showing. Typical. Nevertheless, Cannot wait for that movie. And the footage after the credits of IRON MAN is worth the wait. It's completely badass.

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Masticatinsk8r13 writes:
on May 04 2008 08:05 PM

yea it is...gotta love SLJ (he can be ANYBODY!) but do you think that IRON MAN has the longest credits in history?? It had to be at least 8 minutes long!

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Xx MooSE xX writes:
on May 04 2008 08:22 PM

In reply to this comment (#1719290)
msn.com dude is where i got it

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rt_hire_me writes:
on May 04 2008 08:38 PM

Funny movie. Downey is without peer. Even lines that could have been excruciatingly cheesy he managed to pull off. Pokes fun of the usual superhero conventions without becoming a farce. One complaint - SPOILER ALERT - why does Iron Man get away when his much larger foe gets blasted by the arc ball discharge in the final battle? He rolled out of the way? That one should have been worked out like so many of the other excellent details in the movie.

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thereign writes:
on May 04 2008 08:44 PM

I'm sorry to see Forbidden Kingdom not doing as well as it should, since that was a really fun movie. Iron Man was far more enjoyable than I expected, and I've seen it twice so far. Robert Downey Jr. owned the entire film, and I certainly hope this solid return for his career means the troubles of his past are finally behind him.

However, when The Dark Knight comes out, it will kick the A$$ of any movie near it! Can't wait for that one!!

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martinscorsese25 writes:
on May 04 2008 08:55 PM

i heard a few days ago that indy 4 is 3 hours long??!!!! then when i checked the running time on yahoo movies it is just 2 hours... WTF!! i'm dying to see a GREAT spielberg film(though he didnt make a bad movie for me, he's previous films were good, and beyond average, but not great) i think the last one that i really liked was Catch me If you can..... i think indy 4 will broke his record of JUST a good film, and comes back to his GREAT film record

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gamecrazy2006 writes:
on May 04 2008 09:14 PM

I agree with 'thereign' in that The Dark Knight will outperform all of the movies this year at the box office (the only film that it will contend with is Indy 4). Congrats to Iron Man's success, but, c'mon, The Dark Knight will dominate it come July. The third trailer just premiered today and it's already taking away the limelight from Iron Man.

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rockclmbr6 writes:
on May 04 2008 09:15 PM

Iron Man deserves everything it's getting; the movie was a blast. I saw it twice on Saturday (two different groups of friends wanted to see it at different times), and I'll probably be seeing it again because all of this press has caught the attention of my dad.

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Young Turk writes:
on May 04 2008 10:22 PM

Iron Man was amazing, exceeded my expectations (only Batman Begins did before that). I really hope they go with at least 2 more sequels, I have got to see War Machine.

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Young Turk writes:
on May 04 2008 10:27 PM

By the way Krauser12 thanks for posting the new TDK trailer, that was effing great.

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