10 Most Important And Influential Summer Blockbusters Of All-Time
5. Iron Man
The success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is taken for granted these days with the franchise's reputation as the biggest, most popular and lucrative brand in the business secured a long time ago. However, what often gets overlooked is how much of a gamble Iron Man was at the time.
A rookie studio plowing $140m into their first self-funded movie, based on what most people viewed as a B-tier superhero, with the director of Elf calling the shots and a leading man who had only recently come back from the brink was by no means a sure thing, and the entire industry would look remarkably different today if it had bombed.
Instead, it turned Robert Downey Jr. one of the biggest stars on the planet, served as the catalyst for an unprecedented business model that's reaped over $20bn in box office receipts and seen countless cinematic universes rushed to the screen as a reactionary attempt to replicate the formula.
X-Men and Batman Begins redefined the superhero movie in the years prior, but Iron Man set the stage for Marvel Studios to take it to never-before-seen heights.