As expected, Iron Man 3’s debut at the box office was huge. Marvel’s latest film grossed over $175 million, earning the second-best opening in history. The only film that did better was Marvel’s The Avengers.
Iron Man 3 opened the summer blockbuster season with an estimated $175.3 million, reports Box Office Mojo. That puts it behind The Avengers’ $207.4 million opening last year. It’s also well above Iron Man 2’s $128.1 million opening in 2010, which breaks the usual routine for threequels. Typically, they are expected to not do as well as the second film in a franchise, as we saw with The Dark Knight Rises last year.
“We sat here a year ago with The Avengers, and there was speculation of what the impact of what such a big weekend and the coming together of all these heroes might mean for each of the subsequent films,” Dave Hollis, Disney’s head of distribution, told Entertainment Weekly. “And we’re first-hand witnessing that the brand is as strong as it’s ever been.”
In foreign markets, the film has already grossed $504.8 million, easily topping the measly $311.5 million total Iron Man 2 earned during its entire run. The Avengers finished with $888.4 million outside of the U.S.
If you didn’t want to see Iron Man 3, you still had some choices. Michael Bay’s Pain & Gain added $7.6 million in its second weekend, bringing its total to $33.9 million. IT cost Paramount just $26 million to make, so they aren’t complaining.
42 added $6.2 million, while Tom Cruise’s Oblivion grossed $5.8 million. Oblivion has made $222 million internationally, which would be nice if the film didn’t cost $120 million to make, plus more expenses on marketing and distribution. The Croods rounded out the top five with $4.2 million.
The Great Gatsby opens this weekend, so let the battle between Tony Stark and Jay Gatsby begin.
image: YouTube/trailer