Weekend Box Office: Iron Is Gold

Robert Downey, Jr.’s career rebirth, the best story of the year. 

I guess maybe Iron Man could not have won the weekend box office race. Perhaps if there was some kind of extremely well-organized movie goer strike. Or if all the prints mysteriously disappeared from each theater. Maybe if a rumor had been started warning that looking at the screen would make you die. Other than that, though, the latest Marvel superhero to hit the big screen was a heavier favorite to clean up the cash than Big Brown was to win the Kentucky Derby (and he went off at 2-1 odds).

According to Variety, Tony Stark and his alter ego took in $104.2 million in the US and $96.8 million overseas. This gave Iron Man the second-biggest non-sequel opening weekend since figures have been kept; first place belongs to 2002′s Spider-Man, with a $114.8 million opening weekend.

There are a number of reasons for the film’s success. For starters, it is the first big summer event movie, and I think that in a year that had so far lacked anything special, there was a pent-up desire for a “must-see” movie that burst out this weekend. Second, the movie got excellent reviews and people who might not normally rush off to a superhero movie can be persuaded if the critics weigh in with positive notices. Finally, a cast full of Actors with a capital A, such as Robert Downey, Jr., Jeff Bridges, Terrence Howard and Gywneth Paltrow, also likely served to convince those who typically look down on a movie that would be seen as too commercial. The audience was 62% male, but 57% of the audience was over 25, so Iron Man clearly has a wider appeal than just the action figure crowd. Older audiences are also good for word of mouth, so this could potentially pay off in a smaller decline next weekend against the much younger looking Speed Racer.

In a move that is referred to as “counterprogramming,” Made of Honor was the other major release of the weekend, with an eye on capturing all the women who supposedly wouldn’t want to see Iron Man. The theory works something like this: Iron Man is a movie with a lot of positive buzz, good actors, and excellent reviews. Made of Honor is a weak-minded remake of My Best Friend’s Wedding, stars an actor from a TV show that saw its best days about four years ago, and got terrible reviews. Women will be more interested in Made of Honor because they don’t like or need movies aimed at them that are any good. Women will go to see anything that has a wedding dress in it. Look, I can understand counterprogramming. I understand that there are women out there who might not be interested in a superhero movie (I don’t know any of them, but whatever). But if Hollywood is going to aim a movie at women, why can’t it be good instead of cheap, easy, and stupid? Why is “chick flick” a code phrase for bad and inconsequential?

But I digress. Made of Honor managed to sell $15.5 million worth of tickets, good enough for 2nd place. Baby Mama held on well for its second weekend, taking in $10.3 million for third place. Forgetting Sarah Marshall came in 4th with $6.1 million, just beating out Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay and its $6 million take.

In the smaller movie category, Redbelt, David Mamet’s mixed martial arts movie opened in six theaters, earning $68,646 for a $11,441 per screen average. Son of Rambow took in $52,549 at five theaters for a $10,510 per screen average.

So the big question is how long Iron Man can hold up with the summer movie onslaught just beginning? As I said, I think it should manage well against Speed Racer. After that, all bets are off.