Tagged: Robert Downey Jr.

Iron Man 2 looking good to best Robin Hood

Robert Downey Jr. is hands-down a better actor than Russell Crowe, and now there’s proof to back up that opinion, it seems; Downey’s Iron Man 2 may have a weaker plot than the first flimic adventure of the Golden Avenger, but his performance has staying power; early returns on this weekend indicate Iron Man 2 has the early lead on Crowe’s boorish, politically-correct Robin Hood reboot, besting the Merry Men by a take of about $15 million to $13 million.

That puts Iron Man 2 on track for at least a $40-45 million weekend, while Robin Hood seems destined for come in under $40 million, and perhaps well under that benchmark. That would be an incredibly poor open for a film that cost quite a bit more than that to make.

I don’t need my old Acer Aspire desktop to calculate that Downey will again have an Iron-clad reason to be cocky about his box office clout, while Crowe will be eating his namesake after this weekend.

Of course, nothing’s official yet. Let’s see what the rest of the weekend brings.

Weak end to summer box office

Only Tropic Thunder managed to draw more than $10 million in box office in the weekend preceding Labor Day, the traditional end to the summer movie season. Totals through Sunday have the Robert Downey Jr.-headed comedy coming away with $11.5 million for its third straight week atop the box office draw. As the movie that dethroned The Dark Knight from the top spot, it’s been a great summer movie season for actor Robert Downey Jr., whose Marvel Studios superhero pic, Iron Man, kicked off the summer blockbuster season.

So far, Tropic Thunder has grossed $86 million in worldwide box office, while Iron Man topped out at $571 million in worldwide box office. Together, that gives Downey Jr. $657 million in box office this summer.

By comparison, The Dark Knight has accumulated an additional $8.75 million this weekend, bringing it’s domestic total to $502 million and its worldwide total to $919 million.

So, while summer may be packing its Rimowa bags, the future looked bright for Downey Jr., who has had as much impact on summer box office success as nearly anyone, aside from the cast of The Dark Knight.

If Downey Jr. can avoid another career-derailing misstep, he should expect to see several large paydays in the near future.

In other chart news, Babylon AD debuted in second place with $9.7 million, a worrisome note considering its $70 million budget; The House Bunny came in fourth, close behind The Dark Knight, with $8.4 million. And Traitor, the Guy Pearce-Don Cheadle vehicle, rounded out the Top 5 spots with $7.9 million.

Other disappointments: The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emporer has fallen to the 13 spot, grossing only $97 million to date against a $145 million budget. Star Wars: The Clone Wars is already out of the Top 10, with only $27 million grossed to date. And Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 dropped from 12 to 19 this week, drawing only $1.45 million but has already grossed $41 million against a budget of $27 million, making it a value film despite a brief run.

Iron man upsets The Dark Knight, at last

With a career revitalized by the Iron Man film, Robert Downey Jr.’s risky role in Tropic Thunder powered the campy comedy to an upset of The Dark Knight after a solid month of box office bat-dominance. Tropic Thunder scored $26 million in its debut, while The Dark Knight slipped to the second spot with $16.7 million.

Batman now has $471 million domestically, $328 million overseas, and a grand total that just eclipsed the $800 million mark. Star Wars: The Clone Wars ($15.5 million), Mirrors ($11.1 million) and Pineapple Express ($10 million) round out the Top 5 spots.

X-Files: I Want To Believe has already been pulled from theaters like the tiny Micro SD card its box office results unfortunately resembled.