Two years after the original film debuted, Robert Downey Jr.’s “Iron Man 2″ is burning quickly through the box office, earning $133.6 million on its opening weekend in the United States — a week after debuting in most other parts of the world — and takes a solid place in the top five three-day opening weekends of all time.
The latest outing of the Marvel comic hero topped the $102.1 million “Iron Man” picked up on its opening weekend in 2008, and is on pace to top the $318.3 million its predecessor earned overall in North America.
Combined with overseas totals, “Iron Man 2″ has already picked up $327.6 million.
“Iron Man 2″ is one of the first big event movies in recent memory that didn’t include a 3-D component, director Jon Favreau opting to not jump on the bandwagon made popular by “Avatar” last year. That might have been a good thing, since a lot of the 3-D that followed in films like “Clash of the Titans” was created after the fact, and not during filming, which typically creates the best quality.
The film did make $10.2 million in IMAX, representing 8 percent of its domestic gross, according to Entertainment Weekly.
The “Iron Man 2″ opening pushes “Nightmare on Elm Street” to the second spot, with a $9.2 million take, giving it a two-week total of $48.5 million. The computer animated feature “How to Train Your Dragon” became the first film of 2010 to cross the $200 million mark with another $6.7 million this weekend.
And “Clash of the Titans” earned just $2.3 million bringing its total to $157.8 million.
“The Dark Knight” still holds the record for the biggest opening ever, collecting $158 million on its debut weekend in 2008.
Rotten Tomatoes gave “Iron Man 2″ a 75 percent positive review rating, saying that it’s not “quite the fresh air that ‘Iron Man’ was, but this sequel comes close with solid performances and an action-packed plot.”
