May 3rd, 2008
How Big Iron Man?
Somewhere between Spider-Man and the Hulk, you might just find Robert Downey Jr. in a can.
Box-office expectations were big—but not crazy big—for Iron Man, which kicks off the summer movie season tomorrow (or tonight at 8 p.m., if you want to be technical about it, and include the so-called "sneak" screenings).
"This is definitely no Spider-Man 3," says Jeff Bock, a box-office analyst for Exhibitor Relations Co. "But this is a huge comic-book property."
Bock's guess: Between $80 million and $100 million, and eventual status as the second biggest comic-book movie of the summer after the latest Batman adventure, The Dark Knight.
Paul Dergarabedian, president of the box-office tracking firm Media by Numbers, pegged a $75 million-$85 million opening—or, as he put it: "Higher than X-Men but less than Spider-Man."
"We don't have a lot to go on," Dergarabedian said. "This isn't a franchise yet."
Spider-Man 3, which was the latest chapter of its franchise, jump-started last summer with a phenomenal $151.1 million opening weekend.
But as 2003's Hulk reminds, it's not always about how you start. In the case of that critically panned comic-book movie, a $62 million opening gave way to a sputtering $132.2 million finish.
In the case of Iron Man, which stars Downey as a playboy genius-turned-armored crimefighter, Dergarabedian said a debut of $50 million or less would be disappointing, but not necessarily fatal.
"Because it's good, it's going to have legs," said Dergarabedian, who caught a screening a few weeks ago.
Rob M. Worley, founder of Comics2Film.com, agreed.
"I rank it among the better superhero movies," said Worley, who watched it Tuesday night. "It's the cool, hipster superhero movie."
At one point this afternoon, Rotten Tomatoes had tracked 31 early-bird reviews, and deigned all but two of them positive. Iron Man's "T-meter" reading stood at 93 percent.
Tags: box, iron, man, office
12 Responses to “How Big Iron Man?”
I have to say, out of the 5, I am most looking forward to Dark Knight…Anybody else?
The Pineapple Express trailer cracks me up when James Franco tries to kick out the cop car’s window.
Where the heck is the X-files 2 trailer? I mean the real one, not that bootleg crap…
HA! My comment about the music in the IJ4 trailer was dugg down. Turns out Mike Snider and I have similarly high standards for Indiana Jones.
I think the Iron Man trailers are absolutely superb and sell the movie really well, but The Dark Knight is defo the daddy…
Actually, the movie doesn’t break the “rules” of physics, it just breaks the abilities and knowledge of physics we currently possess.Everything in his suit is possible, we just don’t have the technology to do it, which I think is kind of the point. Ironman would have to be thousands of years ahead from a technology standpoint to be able to dominate.
Being a fan of batman movies, definitely looking forward to watch DarkKnight. and are you kidding me “IRON MAN” ? How can he go faster than fighter planes
Pineapple Express is coming out on my birthday, just for me.
iron man has the best trailer so far imo
So I assume… since everyone these days gets their movies from bittorrnet, they don’t get to watch trailers as they would in the movie theaters, and they sit around at home all day, watching these movies, and looking at movie trailer sites?seems so.
Fuck this viral marketing spam! This movie sucks the shit from a dead hog’s ass!