Iron Man has really beaten the odds – it’s now enjoying its second week on top of the weekend box office, despite the massive gamble involved in making it.
Not because it’s a B-list superhero movie with indie sensibilities starring a middle-aged recovering drug addict or anything, but because nobody really knew if big expensive blockbusters about flying robots who can blow shit up with arm missiles were all that popular.
Of course, Iron Man‘s biggest challenge will come during next week’s weekend box office – can it still cling onto the coveted number one slot in the face of a crappy-looking Narnia film starring that over-earnest big-toothed kid we couldn’t really stand in the last one? Only time will tell.
Iron Man has set an incredibly high watermark for the rest of this summer’s movies to follow. For two lots of US weekend box offices running, Iron Man has been head and shoulders above everything else. It’s already the biggest movie of the year by far, and the other tentpoles will have to hit extraordinarily hard to make as much of an impression.
But will they? Iron Man‘s biggest competition this summer comes from Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull – which is getting horrible early reviews – and the potentially death-scuppered The Dark Knight. Oh, and then there’s Sex And The City, but if a film about some annoying skinny women talking about penises beats a flying robot destructomovie, then we’re going into our bunker and never coming out again.
Here are this week’s US weekend box office top five…
1 – Iron Man (With Iron Man and the potentially huge hit Tropic Thunder under his belt for this summer, Robert Downey Jr has got the taste of success, and he’ll be sure to turn in blockbuster after blockbuster from now on, which is why you’ll soon be able to see him in a movie about a miserable homeless schizophrenic musician. Big time all the way, baby!) $50,500,000
2 – Speed Racer (Speed Racer was meant to be a number one movie, but it just couldn’t compete with Iron Man. Maybe it’s because of poor reviews, or maybe it’s because audiences were wary of being ripped off after two godawful Matrix sequels, or maybe nobody was too familiar with the Japanese cartoon that Speed Racer was based on which, after seeing the trailer, we think was Super Joyful Epilepsy-Inducing Fun Seizure 100% Club) $20,210,000
3 – What Happens In Vegas (Apparently what happens in Vegas is that you marry Cameron Diaz and have a number of hilarious attempts at separation. Weird, that, because we thought what happens in Vegas is that you go and see a rubbish Toni Braxton concert, lose all your money in a casino and spend the rest of your life spiralling into a desperate pit of wanton self-destruction and bitter loathing for your fellow man. Which is sort of the same thing) $20,000,000
4 – Made Of Honor (Not to be confused with Medal Of Honor, although god knows a squadron of rifle-toting Nazis would liven this bag of cocks up a bit) $7,6000,000
5 – Baby Mama (Still in the weekend box office top five after three weeks, even though we ran of things to say about it two weeks ago. Thanks Baby Mama. No, really) $5,766,000
Read more: