Scores second-best Friday for a non-sequel
By ANTHONY D'ALESSANDRO
Paramount and Marvel Studios' "Iron Man" grossed a whopping $33.4
million at the domestic box office on Friday, firing up the summer
season and scoring the second-best Friday in history for a non-sequel
after the first "Spider-Man."
Overseas, the superhero tentpole grossed at least $30 million
Wednesday and Thursday.
Factoring in Thursday night shows, the summer's first tentpole has
grossed a sizeable $38.5 million domestically in its first one-and-a-
half days, according to studio estimates. Pic, toplining Robert Downey
Jr., is playing in 4,105 theaters.
Paramount won't release the exact breakdown between Thursday and
Friday until Sunday.
Friday's haul is the third best for the first weekend in May after
last year's "Spider-Man 3" ($59.8 million), 2002's "Spider-Man" ($39.4
million) and besting 2003's "X2: X-Men United" ($31.2 million).
It=92s also the second-best opening for a non-sequel Marvel property
after the first "Spider-Man."
"Iron Man" should be able to jump the $90 million mark for the three-
and-a-half days. In 2002, "Spider-Man" grossed $114.8 million in its
opening weekend. The final three-day weekend for "X2" clocked in at
$85.6 million.
"Iron Man," financed and produced by Marvel, skewed heavily male and
drew an A cinema score.
Strong debut was welcome news for the film biz as the summer season
gets underway.
Coming in second on Friday was Sony's romantic comedy "Made of Honor,"
which grossed an estimated $5.4 million from 2,729 sites.
In third, Universal's holdover laffer "Baby Mama" earned an estimated
$3.5 million from 2,548 theaters, a 45% decline from its first Friday,
bringing its eight-day cume to $25.5 million.
Grabbing fourth with $2.1 million, the second Friday for Warner Bros.-
New Line's "Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay" took a 65% hit.
However, the sequel currently remains over 100% ahead of its first
2004 installment through its first eight days with a domestic haul of
$21.3 million.
Universal's second comedy in the top five, "Forgetting Sarah Marshall"
placed fifth with $1.9 million from 2,872, down 44%, for a running
cume in its third frame of $40.6 million.
Of those specialty titles re****ting yesterday, Helen Hunt's feature
directorial debut "Then She Found Me" about a New York schoolteacher's
midlife crisis, discovered $53,000 in its second Friday from 53
engagements. To date, the ThinkFilm release has grossed $148,000.
The 2007 Sundance Film Festival premiere "Son of Rambow" about two
British boys' fixation with the movie action hero shot up $16,000 in
its first day from five theaters in Los Angeles and New York or $3,260
per theater. The pic has already been in release for the last four
weeks in its Blighty homeland where it has pulled in $7.6 million.
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