No surprise here, Iron Man 2 is selling a lot of tickets. With more than a week until the film is released here in American word is that some showings are already starting to sell out and, according to MovieTickets.com, it’s on pace to outdo the first Iron Man.
According to their data Iron Man 2 has sold more than five times as many tickets as the first installment of Iron Man did at this same point in its sales cycle. The original Iron Man earned $318 million domestically, nearly $600 million worldwide. In the movie’s opening weekend alone it earned $98 million. Does that mean Iron Man 2 is on track for $500 million? That's impossible since there's a limit on the number of seats for people to actually sit in and besides, at least some of that increased number may be due to larger numbers of people buying movie tickets online. But it’s a sure sign that the sequel is on pace to do big, big opening weekend business.
The current opening weekend record holder is The Dark Knight with $158 million back in 2008. Topping that seems like a tall order but Iron Man 2 has a a few things working in its favor. For instance, Iron Man 2's running time is shorter than that of the Batman’s sequel, which could allow theater owners to squeeze in more showings. Additionally, it's got a bigger base to build on. Iron Man earned significantly more than Batman Begins did, giving Iron Man 2 an already bigger, already locked-in audience.
