'Iron Man 3' takes in $680 million in 11 days; second-best U.S. debut ever

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
5/6/2013 (4 years ago)
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Disney and Marvel's superhero sequel "Iron Man 3" in its domestic weekend debut is second only to the $207 million debut of "The Avengers" last year. In "Iron Man 3's" 11 days of release, $680 million has been garnered worldwide, with more than $500 million of that coming from overseas.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - "It's extraordinary," Disney's head of distribution Dave Hollis says. "It's a Marvel superhero movie of course, but the action and comedy elements are clearly translating and have turned this into an event overseas."

The first two "Iron Man" movies took in $1.2 billion worldwide. AT that time, those grosses came from the U.S. as abroad. This won't be the case of "Iron Man 3," which is playing like a sequel to "The Avengers."

Starring Robert Downey Jr., reprising his Iron Man character for the third time, "Iron Man 3's" foreign grosses could double the domestic haul. "Iron Man 3" has already brought in $63.5 million in China. Korea is next with $42 million, followed by the U.K. with $38 million.

"Some of it is the market," Hollis said, "but a lot of it the concept, plan and execution by Marvel President Kevin Feige and his team. "And we're talking years here."

"They built up to 'The Avengers' and now they're building on 'The Avengers,'" BoxOffice.com Editor-in-Chief Phil Contrino said in agreement. "It's unprecedented and it's impressive."
The original "Iron Man" got the ball rolling, with $585 million in global grosses back in 2008. Then came "The Incredible Hulk" at $263 million, "Iron Man 2" at $624 million, "Thor" at $449 million and "Captain America: The First Avengers" at $368 million. They all set up "The Avengers" to make $1.5 billion and become the third-highest grossing movie of all time, behind "Avatar" and "Titanic." The Marvel superhero mash-up brought in $888 million internationally, compared to $623 million domestically.

The growth of 3D and Imax screens has deeply impacted international screens, and the benefit of that was clear for "Iron Man 3," which played in sold-out theaters around the globe.

It brought in approximately $13 million from 267 IMAX screens, an eye-popping per-screen average of almost $50,000. In Russia, it was $72,000 per screen, in China, it was $63,000.

"Basically, we ran out of screens," Imax President Greg Foster said. "That this film is playing so strongly in its second week really speaks to how strong the word of mouth is."

Disney had its eye on the Chinese market long before it began filming "Iron Man 3" last year.

The movie was partly financed by the Chinese studio DMG, which is co-distributing in China. A version of movie edited specifically for the Chinese market includes a number of scenes filmed on location in the People's Republic and several added scenes in Mandarin, as well as an appearance by one of that country's most popular actresses, Fan Bingbing.

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