After helping with Sunday night’s podcast, I began my weekly contribution to SciFiPulse.Net by writing up many of the stories that will appear on the site on Monday morning, thus giving site head honcho Ian Cullen a well-deserved night off. But since we in the club are so very interested in what happens behind the camera as well as what happens in front of it, I’m printing it here as well. I won’t do this very often, but I think this one is really worth double-dipping it.
>>Will Iron Man 2 do well in the U.S. as some have predicted? Apparently so, if you can go by box offices around the rest of the world this past weekend, according to comingsoon.net.
The sequel to the 2008 hit grossed $100.2 million in 53 countries worldwide over the weekend, according to numerous reports. Returns from the U.K. ($12.2 million), Mexico ($7.3 million) and Russia ($8.2 million) are way ahead of opening-weekend numbers for the first Iron Man, which bodes well for its domestic release on Friday, May 7.
You may remember that Iron Man made $102 million in its first weekend in U.S. theaters back in 2008. With the big “overseas” numbers, forecasters are predicting a $150 million-plus opening this Friday for Iron Man 2. If it lives up to expectations, it will easily pass Alice In Wonderland’s $116 million for the best opening weekend of the year.
A nine-figure opening in the United States would also mean that the movie would recoup its reported $200 million production budget in just one week.
However Iron Man 2 dominates the box office next week, its run at the top may not last an especially long time, as Avatar did in December and January. The summer movie season kicks off with its release, and it will face competition for the top spot from Robin Hood on May 14 and Shrek Forever After on May 21.
Paramount Pictures and Marvel Studios opened the movie internationally a week early to give it more time before the World Cup starts on June 11th. The film grossed $2.25 million at 48 IMAX theaters around the world. That’s a new record for a 2D release, surpassing 2009’s Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen ($2.1 million). Directed by Jon Favreau, the movie stars Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Jon Favreau, Mickey Rourke, Sam Rockwell, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Garry Shandling, John Slattery, Kate Mara and Clark Gregg.
On the other hand, New Line/Warner Bros. remake A Nightmare On Elm Street dominated the United States’ box office, earning an estimated $32.2 million its first weekend. Made for about $30 million, the Samuel Bayer-directed film starred Jackie Earle Haley (from Watchmen and The Human Target) as Freddy Krueger, wasn’t quite able to match New Line’s 2009 remake Friday the 13th, which opened to $40.6 million and also carried a smaller budget of $19 million.
In North America theaters, DreamWorks Animation’s How To Train Your Dragon continued to hold up well, taking in another $10.8 million in second place its sixth weekend for a total of $192.4 million. The movie cost about $165 million to produce.
Warner Bros. Pictures claimed the next two spots, with The Losers adding $6 million its second weekend for a total of $18.1 million and Clash Of The Titans taking in $5.98 million its fifth weekend for a total of $154 million.
Kick-Ass from Lionsgate lost over 50 percent in ticket sales its third weekend. It made $4.5 million for a total of $42.2 million.<<
It’s a natural to run the Iron Man 2 trailer with this, so here goes: