‘Iron Man’ Wins the Race to $300 Million

Posted by Paige MacGregor (paige@filmschoolrejects.com) on June 22, 2008

This past Wednesday, Marvel Studios’ cinematic adaptation of the classic comic book hero Iron Man officially became the first film of 2008 to hit, and then to surpass, the $300 million-dollar mark at the box office. According to The Hollywood Reporter, several of this summer’s other recently released “blockbusters” are also in the running to gross $300+ million, including Paramount’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which sucked epically yet still managed to make a whopping $279.5 million through this past Tuesday (does Lucas know how to capitalize on a franchise name or what?) and a worldwide $638.9 million (which actually surpasses Iron Man’s worldwide $550+ million… I shudder to imagine how many people must’ve seen that movie, given that no true Indiana Jones fan would ever pay to see that piece of crap more than once).

Clearly, Marvel’s decision to take over the production of comic book adaptation films was a smart one (everyone remembers how horrific that 2003 film Hulk was, right? Whereas the recently released Marvel Studios’ version, The Incredible Hulk, starring Edward Norton, has received resounding positive reviews from formerly disappointed fans). It will be interesting to see how the studio’s upcoming releases, including Doctor Strange (2010), X-Men Origins: Magneto (2009), The Avengers (2011), and The First Avenger: Captain America (2011) , will turn out.

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