Weekend Box Office: ‘Iron Man’ Flies to New Heights

The Disney/Marvel combination has once again proven to be a powerful partnership. Together, the two companies push each much farther than either reached separately.

After last summer’s ‘The Avengers‘, Iron Man as both a character and a film series will never be the same. The $98 million and $128 million debuts for ‘Iron Man‘ and ‘Iron Man 2‘ simply won’t suffice anymore. Thanks to the post-‘Avengers’ hype and 45% attendance for 3D showings, ‘Iron Man 3‘ has domestically premiered to $175.3 million, making it the second-highest opening of all time behind ‘The Avengers’. Including international totals, the $200 million-budgeted film has earned $504.8 million in less than two weeks. It’s highly likely that the movie will cross the $1 billion mark by the end of its theatrical run. Great investment, Disney! Let’s see if you can do it again with your ‘Star Wars’ sequels. With Marvel continuing the record-setting success of ‘The Avengers’, two questions are on my mind: “Which ‘Man’ will be stronger, the Man of Steel or the Man or Iron?” And, “Will the success of ‘Iron Man 3’ be enough to push Robert Downey, Jr. back into the iron suit again?”

Last week’s opener ‘Pain & Gain‘ only dropped to second place, but fell a drastic 62.5% in attendance. Its $7.6 million second weekend has given the $26 million Michael Bay flick a $33.9 million ten-day total. ‘42‘ held onto the #3 spot with another $6.2 million, while ‘Oblivion‘ dropped 64.7%, from second place to fourth, and pulled in $5.7 million. ’42’ has earned $78 million over its four-weekend run and ‘Oblivion’ has earned $75 million over its three-weekend run. Also, ‘The Croods‘ continues to round out the Top 5. In its seventh weekend, the Fox Animation family film earned another $4.2 million, bringing its domestic total to $168 million.

The two Top 10 surprises this weekend were ‘Mud‘ at #7 and ‘Oz: The Great and Powerful‘ at #8. I think I know what adults and families went to see after being turned away from sold-out ‘Iron Man’ showings. ‘Mud’ climbed up to 576 screens. Slipping a measly 3% from its opening weekend attendance, the Matthew McConaughey indie vehicle added $2.1 million to its $5.1 million ten-day cumulative total. ‘Oz’, despite being nine weekends into its theatrical run, actually went up .6% in attendance from last weekend. The $1.8 million weekend raised its domestic total to $228 million.

Opening on just four screens, Michael Shannon’s ‘The Iceman‘ debuted to an impressive $93,100. The $23,375 per-screen average was only beat out by ‘Iron Man 3’ with $41,218. Lionsgate’s date-specific Mexican war drama ‘Cinco de Mayo: La Batalla‘ opened far behind that. Its $70,000 debut stemmed from a 20-screen opening, so its $3,500 per-screen average was much less impressive.

Top 10:

1. ‘Iron Man 3’ (Buena Vista) – $175,300,000

2. ‘Pain & Gain’ (Paramount) – $7,600,000

3. ’42’ (Warner Bros.) – $6,210,000

4. ‘Oblivion’ (Universal) – $5,797,000

5. ‘The Croods’ (Fox) – $4,225,000

6. ‘The Big Wedding’ (Lionsgate) – $3,875,000

7. ‘Mud’ (Roadside) – $2,150,000

8. ‘Oz: The Great and Powerful’ (Buena Vista) – $1,822,000

9. ‘Scary Movie 5’ (Weinstein) – $1,435,000

10. ‘The Place Beyond the Pines’ (Focus) – $1,298,000

11 comments

  1. Rcorman

    It will be interesting to see if the Avengers boost will continue, and carry over to the new Thor moving coming out later this year.

  2. William Henley

    Summery – IM3 blew everything else away, opening as the second highest opening-weekend ever. Everything else playing pulled in some change.

    I don’t think I have ever seen over $150 million and under $2 million listed in the top ten at the same time.

  3. What does “date-specific” mean? That it refers to a certain point in time? Or that it’s an ideal date movie? I don’t know the meaning of the expression “date-specific” …

  4. Deaditelord

    Not surprised to see Iron Man 3 in the list but what the **** is Scary Movie 5 doing in the top 10? I find it depressing that the abysmal Scary Movie 5 somehow managed to make more money than the Evil Dead remake.

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