Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Marvel turns `Iron Man' into gold with $100M-plus debut
AP ^

Posted on 05/04/2008 10:33:44 AM PDT by maquiladora

"Iron Man" was pure gold at the box office.

The Marvel Comics adaptation, starring Robert Downey Jr. as the guy in the metal suit, hauled in $100.7 million over opening weekend and $104.2 million since debuting Thursday night, the second-best premiere ever for a non-sequel, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The film also scored overseas with $96.7 million in 57 countries where it began opening Wednesday, putting its worldwide total at $201 million.

Distributed by Paramount, "Iron Man" was the first release by Marvel Studios, which has begun financing its own productions after such studio-backed hits as the "Spider-Man,""X-Men" and "Fantastic Four" flicks.

"We could not have hoped for a better way for Marvel Studios to blast off," said David Maisel, chairman of the unit, a division of Marvel Entertainment, which stands to pull in a greater share of box-office receipts and merchandising money by financing movies itself.

Debuting in second-place with $15.5 million was Sony's romantic comedy "Made of Honor," starring "Grey's Anatomy" heartthrob Patrick Dempsey as a man who tries to woo his best pal after she asks him to be "maid of honor" at her wedding.

With rave reviews from many critics, "Iron Man" features Downey as billionaire arms designer Tony Stark, a boozy womanizer who builds a high-tech suit and becomes a superhero, mending his ways after he's taken captive and sees firsthand the devastation his weapons cause.

Directed by Jon Favreau, the film also stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges and Terrence Howard.

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS: TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: boxoffice; ironman; marvelcomics; moviereview
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-42 next last

1 posted on 05/04/2008 10:33:45 AM PDT by maquiladora
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: maquiladora
superhero, mending his ways after he's taken captive and sees firsthand the devastation his weapons cause.

gosh the trailers must be misleading, It looks like he's taking on the jihadists after the capture him in Afghanistan.

2 posted on 05/04/2008 10:42:14 AM PDT by gusopol3
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: maquiladora

After suggesting either ‘Iron Man’ or ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’, we ended up at the very adolecent and forgettable, latter film.

If watching “adults” behave as 13 year olds is entertaining to you, feel free to dismiss my review.

It contains a lot of very uncomfortable, sexual, “comedy”.


3 posted on 05/04/2008 10:46:21 AM PDT by G Larry (HILLARY CARE = DYING IN LINE!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: gusopol3

Well the mending his ways part deals with his companies selling to both terrorists and America, in no ways was the movie ,that I could see, being anti-American, anti-Military or even anti-war. If anything it was anti-double dealing corporate greed.


4 posted on 05/04/2008 10:48:25 AM PDT by aft_lizard (born conservative...I chose to be a republican)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: aft_lizard

Agreed. I felt it wasn’t anti-government or anti-military. In fact, the gov’t guys were out to help him in the end.

Spoiler: it didn’t portray the weapons as bad, it portrayed the weapons being sold to the “wrong people” as a bad thing (there was a bad guy who was, unbeknownst to everyone else, selling the weapons to the terror group.)


5 posted on 05/04/2008 10:55:50 AM PDT by dawn53
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: G Larry

Sorry, I thought Forgetting Sarah Marshall kicked Iron Man’s keister. I found it pretty witty, and yes, uncomfortably funny.

Iron Man is just another action movie with a few special effects. It’s definitely summer time.


6 posted on 05/04/2008 11:24:52 AM PDT by CaspersGh0sts
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: gusopol3
FWIW....

'Iron Man' role no stretch

"I have a really interesting political point of view, and it's not always something I say too loud at dinner tables here, but you can't go from a $2,000-a-night suite at La Mirage to a penitentiary and really understand it and come out a liberal," he said.

7 posted on 05/04/2008 11:30:57 AM PDT by mewzilla (In politics the middle way is none at all. John Adams)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: maquiladora
I thought it was great. A rarity, it depicted Afghan "Taliban-like" terrorists as the bad guys (no "Allah-Akbar" shouts, though), rather than the classic white-European-male

If you see it, be sure to stick around through the credits of the final scene after the credits complete. Tony Stark walks into his house and Nick Fury, boss of SHIELD (played by Laurence Fishburne) is waiting there to talk to him about getting involved in the "Avengers Project"

8 posted on 05/04/2008 11:36:38 AM PDT by PapaBear3625 ("In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." — George Orwell)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CaspersGh0sts
Iron Man is just another action movie with a few special effects. It’s definitely summer time.

That's probably true, but I go to movies for escapism, not philosophy. I kind of like to watch a movie where they get the plot out of the way in the first ten minutes, and spend the rest of the time blowing stuff up. Iron Man looked like it was heavily influenced by the Transformers movie.

As a comics buff, I liked the old original Iron Man better than the gold and red later version. The old costume looked like an actual suit of armor, the new just looks like a super hero costume.

They apparently pay homage to the old versions in the movie:


9 posted on 05/04/2008 11:53:25 AM PDT by Richard Kimball (We're all criminals. They just haven't figured out what some of us have done yet.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Richard Kimball
Looks a little like General Grievous...
10 posted on 05/04/2008 11:58:48 AM PDT by BenLurkin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: aft_lizard

I don’t know, it sounds like a typical lefty theme to me. Greedy corporations not caring about the common good, chasing the buck and selling out America by selling to the bad guys. Are you sure there wasn’t an anti-corporate overtone there?


11 posted on 05/04/2008 12:00:36 PM PDT by Yardstick
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: maquiladora

It should be a great movie. Marvel directly producing it should make their movies even truer to the comic books.


12 posted on 05/04/2008 12:02:23 PM PDT by DouglasKC
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: maquiladora

I’ll look forward to the DVD release.

The film previews that I have seen seem to indicate that the film is true to the actual comic book introduction (updated) which I remember fondly.


13 posted on 05/04/2008 12:02:25 PM PDT by Radix (Q. What do you call a row of rabbits walking backwards? A. A receding hare line.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: maquiladora

Glad to see Downey having some success.


14 posted on 05/04/2008 12:04:11 PM PDT by mysterio
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: maquiladora

Another tiresome telling of “Business Is Evil!” movies with some good eye candy. John Hurt is completely wasted. Downey does well off the sauce. The story is especially laughable for its completely ignoring such basic forces as inertia, aerodynamics, and gravity.


15 posted on 05/04/2008 12:21:31 PM PDT by pabianice
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: maquiladora

Another tiresome telling of “Business Is Evil!” movies with some good eye candy. John Hurt is completely wasted. Downey does well off the sauce. The story is especially laughable for its completely ignoring such basic forces as inertia, aerodynamics, and gravity.


16 posted on 05/04/2008 12:22:20 PM PDT by pabianice
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dawn53

“it portrayed the weapons being sold to the “wrong people””

EXACTLY. Nuanced liberals believe there is no such thing as weapons falling into the wrong hands.


17 posted on 05/04/2008 1:08:07 PM PDT by JHBowden
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

Yeah, but Iron Man predated Star Wars by over ten years, and the second series by something like thirty years. Lucas never had an original thought in his life, except for JarJar Binks and the Ewoks, and we saw how those turned out. Much of the story line for the first three episodes of Star Wars was ripped from Kirby’s New Gods comics, and Darth Vader was such a blatant rip off of Doctor Doom that Marvel had to recreate the character for the Fantastic Four movie.


18 posted on 05/04/2008 1:28:41 PM PDT by Richard Kimball (We're all criminals. They just haven't figured out what some of us have done yet.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: maquiladora

Later


19 posted on 05/04/2008 1:29:30 PM PDT by savedbygrace (SECURE THE BORDERS FIRST (I'M YELLING ON PURPOSE))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: maquiladora

This looks like an exact copy of the animated version that came out a year or so ago.


20 posted on 05/04/2008 1:32:29 PM PDT by Eye of Unk (The world WILL be cleaner, safer and more productive without Islam.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-42 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson