The lesson this weekend was as follows: when America goes for four months with nothing but crap in the theater, there’s no telling just how big their reaction will be when something huge and worth the $9 ticket price finally hits the screen.
Iron Man rocketed onto the scene leaving a massive trail of collateral damage and more than $100 million in box office receipts. That’s an impressive result given than most predictions had the film lined up for nothing more than $80 million. While that incredible financial turn out didn’t break any records, it did put Iron Man into a very elite club with a very small membership.
Only two other comic book franchises have managed to break the triple-digit millions mark on opening weekends. Founding member Spider-Man kicked things off with his first film in May 2002, enjoying a $114 million opening weekend for his first film. He later topped it with the comic-record holding $151 million opening for Spider-Man 3. The X-Men joined in 2003 when X-Men United narrowly made the cut with $102 million. Granted, Iron Man’s $100.7 million could drop when estimates are replaced with the final numbers on Monday, but for now he’s solid gold.
The $140 million budget for Iron Man will doubtless be close to covered by the time next weekend rolls around meaning a fat bottom line for the studio. That’s a good sign that last week’s talk about a sequel will be anything but idle chatter. Green lights and a scramble to get a script written is probably just around the corner.
Oh yeah, Made of Honor opened at a distant second place with $15 million. Maybe Patrick Dempsey should have left off the tux after Enchanted and stuck to playing doctor on the small screen.
