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.
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THTRS = Number of Screens
* Denotes new release.
Click on title to read CB Review
| 1. | Iron Man * | $100,750,000 - Total: $104,250,000 | LW: N WR: 1 THTRS: 4105 |
| 2. | Made of Honor * | $15,500,000 - Total: $15,500,000 | LW: N WR: 1 THTRS: 2729 |
| 3. | Baby Mama | $10,332,000 - Total: $32,330,000 | LW: 1 WR: 2 THTRS: 2548 |
| 4. | Forgetting Sarah Marshall | $6,132,000 - Total: $44,804,000 | LW: 4 WR: 3 THTRS: 2872 |
| 5. | Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay | $6,015,000 - Total: $25,270,000 | LW: 2 WR: 2 THTRS: 2545 |
| 6. | The Forbidden Kingdom | $4,200,000 - Total: $45,124,000 | LW: 3 WR: 3 THTRS: 2960 |
| 7. | Nim's Island | $2,750,000 - Total: $42,544,000 | LW: 5 WR: 5 THTRS: 2478 |
| 8. | Prom Night (2008) | $2,500,000 - Total: $41,447,000 | LW: 6 WR: 4 THTRS: 2434 |
| 9. | 21 | $2,100,000 - Total: $79,057,000 | LW: 7 WR: 6 THTRS: 2242 |
| 10. | 88 Minutes | $1,600,000 - Total: $15,424,000 | LW: 8 WR: 3 THTRS: 1765 |
