Starring: Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Kingsley, Guy Pearce, Don Cheadle, Robert Downey Jr.
Director: Shane Black
Running Time: 130 mins
Certificate: 12
Release Date: September 9th 2013
Director: Shane Black
Running Time: 130 mins
Certificate: 12
Release Date: September 9th 2013
Iron Man 3 presented an interesting challenge to Marvel, as it’s the completion of the Iron Man trilogy – with no stand-alone adventures for Downey Jr’s metal man likely to follow – but also the follow-up to The Avengers and a prequel to his appearance in The Avengers: Age Of Ultron. As such the movie could have ended up a complete mess, unsure what it was meant to be doing. However it actually handles the challenge fairly well, sewing up themes from the earlier Iron Man movies, while having Tony Stark rocked by the events of the Battle Of New York, which have started causing him to have panic attacks. [Read more…]
As expected Monsters University topped the US box office, taking a strong $82 million in its first three days. That’s marks Pixar’s 14th straight film to top the box office, and it’s their second highest debut ever, behind only Toy Story 3. The film is also likely to hold up well in the coming weeks, becoming yet another big hit for the studio.
Warner/DC executives must have been nervous in the last few weeks, as they’d spent over $225 million on Man Of Steel, with the hope it would kick off an entire DC universe. They’ll be breathing a sigh on release as the movie has taken $125 million in its first four days, which is a June record at the US box office.
Box office watchers had been expecting The Internship to disappoint at the box office due to soft tracking, but few had thought The Purge would do as well as it did. While there were already rumbling it might have a chance of topping the box office, in the end it not only took the number one spot but did so with style, taking $36 million.
US audiences couldn’t get enough of movies over the Memorial Day holiday, but the box office came down to earth with a bump this weekend. While Fast & Furious 6 held onto the number 1 spot, it dropped nearly 65% from its opening to take $34.5 million. The Hangover Part II also dropped 60% in its second weekend, with $15.9 million and a sixth place finish.
Heading into the Memorial Day weekend, many box office watchers thought it would be a close race between Hangover Part III and Fast & Furious 6 as to who would come out on top. In the end, it’s the latter that streaked away, with $120 million in its first four days in US cinemas.
When the summer comes around, all the big action movies head for cinemas, causing pretty much every other movie to run for cover (largely because there aren’t many cinema screens left). As a result, Star Trek Into Darkness was the only new entrant into the US box office top 10, taking $84 million since its opening last Thursday.
There’s been a fair amount of uncertainty about how well The Great Gatsby would do, with some wondering whether there was room for it in the usually action-heavy summer release schedule. However it’s done far better than many expected, taking $51 million in its first weekend at the US box office.
The money men at Disney/Marvel will be rubbing their hands in glee this morning, as if they were worried about the hundreds of millions they’ve already poured into the post-Avengers movies, Iron Man 3 has resolutely proved audiences are keen to continue watching the superhero adventures.
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