Box office report for May 10, 2010: "Iron Man 2" blasts to No. 1
“Iron Man 2″ blasted to the top of the box office charts over the weekend, earning $133.6 million domestically in its anticipated opening.
According to the Associated Press, the sequel’s opening opening rocketed past the original film’s $98.6 million debut in 2008 and landed the record as the fifth-biggest opening weekend.
“We’re thrilled with the combination of the way it’s playing across the board,” Don Harris, Paramount’s vice president of distribution, told the AP. “It’s playing as a fanboy movie, but it’s also playing as family movie, too. I even know a bunch of people who are planning to take their mothers to see ‘Iron Man 2′ on Mother’s Day, which really made me chuckle.”
The film stars Robert Downey Jr. as wisecracking genius industrialist Tony Stark, who became the armored superhero Iron Man in the first film. In the sequel, he faces a new villain in Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke).
“Iron Man 2″ has taken in $194 million overseas since it debuted in many international markets last week, bringing its worldwide total to over $327 million. While Hollywood blockbusters typically open around the same date in most countries, some get an overseas jump of a week or more on their U.S. debuts. The biggest opening came from China with $7.3 million, according to the AP.
“It’s a perfect kickoff to the summer of 2010,” Paul Dergarabedian, box office analyst for Hollywood.com, told the AP. “It literally sets the tone for the entire summer movie season. To have the fifth biggest opening week of all time certainly sends a message that this summer season is going to make its mark. Audiences really do get caught up in that.”
“Iron Man 2,” which is only available in 2-D, shot to the top of the charts at a time when 3-D films like “Avatar” and “Alice in Wonderland” have recently dominated the box office. IMAX chairman and president Greg Foster told the AP that the $10.2 million earned by “Iron Man 2″ from IMAX theaters set IMAX’s 2-D record, beating out the $8.5 million debut of “Star Trek” last year.
“When we opened the original ‘Iron Man,’ it seemed to be one of the lesser known properties in the Marvel galaxy,” Paramount’s Harris told the AP. “Two years later, it’s one of the most beloved characters. I think the people at Marvel are incredibly bullish about how future ‘Iron Man’ movies might do and how ‘Iron Man’ interacts with their other characters.”
Despite the triumph over its predecessor, “Iron Man 2″ didn’t beat out fellow superhero debuts like the $158.4 million bow of “The Dark Knight” in 2008 or the $151.1 million debut of “Spider-Man 3″ in 2007. It also didn’t surpass last year’s $142.8 million dawn of “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” or the $135.6 million course charted by “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” in 2006.
<img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-21600" title="sugar free allstars" src="http://blog.newsok.com/bamsblog/wp-content/imagescaler/5cb721c9008d50263081a2aa8a2e9418.jpg" alt="" width="528" height="301" imagescaler="http://blog.newsok.com/bamsblog/wp-content/imagescaler/5cb721c9008d50263081a2aa8a2e9418.jpg" /> Oklahoma duo Sugar Free Allstars are featured in a <a href="http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1987577_2134258,00.html">Time.com photo essay</a> of top "kindie rock" (or kid-friendly indie-rock) musicians. In the photo gallery, Time.com writes:<em> Another favorite of XM-Sirius' Kids Place Live, the witty duo of Chris Wiser and Rob Martin blends blues, New Orleans funk and gospel to create an original, high-energy sound. The title of its newest CD, Funky Fresh and Sugar Free, says it all. Of its humorous yet jammin' lead song, "Rock Awesome!," Chris Wiser says, only half-jokingly, "We figured the genre needed its own anthem song."</em> Last month, the Allstars released a new CD titled “Funky, Fresh and Sugar Free.” - BAM
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Brandy McDonnell, also known by her initials BAM, writes stories and reviews on movies, music, the arts and other aspects of entertainment. She...
