US BOX OFFICE: IRON MAN 2 puts in mighty opening weekend

By Laurent Kelly / June 25, 2011

Editor's note: This should have gone live a few days ago, but unfortunately due to connection difficulties here at Cannes 2010 we were unable to publish it.

I predicted 95 million last week. I was seriously not expecting a near 130 million dollar opening weekend haul for Jon Favreau's blockbuster sequel. A figure which has already made Iron Man 2 the fourth highest grossing film of 2010 after just three days on release and which has been declared as the fifth highest grossing opening weekend of all time. As was expected the other films on release didn't stand a chance. As for the reasons behind this mindblowing success, well let's take a look within our regular top five countdown: 5.) THE BACK-UP PLAN THE STATS:US WEEKEND GROSS: $5,033,471 US TOTAL GROSS: $30,103,940 WEEKS ON RELEASE: 3 DROP PERCENTAGE: -30.6% PRODUCTION BUDGET: $35 Million I have some rather unfortunate news to bring concerning the fact that Jennifer Lopez does in fact have future films in development. In all seriousness though what ever did happen to the promising young actress from Out of Sight? That quality character performance has since been erased in a maze of generic and trashy romantic vehicles and even more appalling edgy dramas. To give credit where it is due The Back-Up Plan lost little ground over the weekend in regards to its drop percentage but then in reality it never really had much ground to begin with. The film should crawl to no further than 40 million as the blockbusters begin to make their nest near the top of the charts.... 4.) DATE NIGHT

THE STATS:US WEEKEND GROSS: $5,448,257 US TOTAL GROSS: $81,002,725 WEEKS ON RELEASE: 5 DROP PERCENTAGE: -28.1% BUDGET: $55 Million Date Night had the lowest drop of all current stateside releases within the top ten as it reached the 80 million mark though it looks unlikely to make it to 100,000,000. Not much else to report here, a resounding commercial success for a quickly made film. 3.) How to Train your Dragon THE STATS:US WEEKEND GROSS: $6,680,374 US TOTAL GROSS: $201,013,867 WEEKS ON RELEASE: 7 DROP PERCENTAGE: -37.1% BUDGET: $ 165 Million Some good news for the chart-hogging animaton as it reached past the 200 million mark despite an opening weekend in the low forties. Owing to the release of Iron Man 2 one could be forgiven for thinking that How to Train your Dragon would be blown out the charts as the new release stole both its IMAX screens and a proportion of its market; however the kids favourite stood its ground and continues to take small but effective chunks near the top of the charts. The film also broke into the top 100 stateside grossing films of all time and has taken over 400 million dollars worldwide. Owing to its mammoth budget however, it will probably warrant another one hundred million in order to be regarded as a truly profitable venture. 2.) A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (2010)THE STATS:US WEEKEND GROSS: $9,119,389 US TOTAL GROSS: $48,479,560 WEEKS ON RELEASE: 2 DROP PERCENTAGE: -72.3% BUDGET: $ 35 Million

A terrible week for the horror remake which lost a lot of audience members due to the young adult demographic of 'Iron Man 2' and because it is usually a formality for horror films to drift away from the scene shortly after making an initally strong impact. The film's drop wasn't quite as bad as the staggering eighty percent second week fall of the Friday the 13th remake but it did compare with other remakes such as Halloween and Freddy vs Jason both of which fell heavily after strong opening weekends. The release of the Iron Man sequel could be blamed but the fact that the majority of the other films on release dropped at the usual rate, it is more likely that the film has been shown up as a date night, hype release rather than a chart stayer. Fans of the original will no doubt be delighted that the remake has been unable to maintain its strong opening weekend as the film has been critically slayed by both critics (a 15% rating on Rotten Tomatoes in comparison to the original's 96%) and been offered a fairly lukewarm response by the mainstreasm movie-going public resulting in a 5.7 average score on the IMDB. The rating is actually not that bad for a horror film as films from the genre very rarely receive fair ratings on the popular website (Wolf Creek has a 6.3 for example) but it still presents yet another example of a remake which has commercially exploited the original without attempting to also copy the techniques that made the originals such great fun to watch. I maintain that The Last House on the Left, The Hills have Eyes and House of Wax are the only modern horror remakes really worth anyones time or patience. 1.) IRON MAN 2THE STATS:(NEW ENTRY) US WEEKEND GROSS: $128,122,480 US TOTAL GROSS: $128,122,480 BUDGET: $ 200 Million Pack your bags because summer has arrived early. At least you would have thought so with the sheer volume of people who went to watch this film over the weekend. As for the reasons for such a big opening weekend? I would argue that the main reason was the positive feedback to the first film. I have heard a number of people in record stores recently discussing just how entertaining the original film was and at the end of the day most people attend the cinema to be entertained. The first film was generally very well received, gathered a good following on DVD and has managed to boost its audience in time for the release of the film's sequel. It is the trend you will notice with most sequels that if the original has been warmly received then the fanbase is likely to grow and the sequel can be expected to do better business at the box office. 'Iron Man 2' also benefited from showing on a record amount of theatres (4,380) which meant that the film could be shown on a staggering ten thousand screens. From an audience perspective 'Iron Man 2' did a fantastic job of targeting its largely male demographic especially considering the fact that films such as 'Spiderman' and 'The Dark Knight' had far more evenly distributed audiences amongst males and females and a broader appeal to young fans.. Whether or not the film's lack of female and younger support will cause a swift downfall remains to be seen in the coming weeks. After all New Moon brought record amounts of young female teenagers to a 158 million opening but had a collosal drop percentage in which its second weekend gross was 100 million dollars short of its opening. The race to the top spot over the weekend no doubt ended within the first hour of Iron Man 2's release as it took 52.2 million dollars on Friday night, 46.5 million on the Saturday and 34.8 million on the Sunday. In this regard it appears less likely that Iron Man 2 will feature such heavy drops as New Moon by comparison took more than half of its opening weekend and incidentally almost a quarter of its entire domestic gross on its initial Friday night receipts alone. Iron Man 2 performed far more evenly over the three days which would imply that it will be able to maintain healthy audience percentages within the following month. On now to the films which are begining to run out of steam within their chart runs:

Believe it or not, Kick-Ass is already outside the top ten after suffering an abysmal 66.6 drop percentage from last weekend. I could not have been more wrong when I predicted that the film would pull off a My Big Fat Greek Wedding style stay in the charts and I also find it surpirisng that the film's positive audience response (an 8.4 rating on the Imdb) hasn't created a more positive word of mouth vibe to send people to the screens. But then again maybe the R Rating is to blame for the film's dissapointing commerical venture.... Having said that though 45.9 million isn't exactly dreadful for a grainy looking film with an unclear target audience..... Now then, time to take a look at next week's upcoming releases: Ridley Scott is back with another period epic which reunites him with actor Robin Hood. The Box office Mojo preview centering around the film's release suggests that the picture has an uphill battle on its hands due to its financially unpopular setting in the Middle Ages (King Arthur, Kingdom of Heaven) and because tickets are likely to be split between 'Iron Man 2'. Nevertheless, the connection to Gladiator (an immensely popular film which is still held in very regard by the general public) within the director/lead actor partnership will not go amiss and the trailer looks suitably epic even though it appears to be directly appealing to a male dominated audience. I predict 36.5 million dollars for the film's opening weekend. Even though it may appear that all other releases are going to pale in comparison to the two blockbusters, Letters to Juliet may stand a chance of small-scale success owing to the fact that the other two films cater to more male orientated audiences whereas 'Letters to Juliet' is clearly aiming to appeal to the young female market. I don't predict anything substantial but the film might have a chance of making around 14.5 million. Check back next week to see how it all unfolded. Thanks for reading.