Iron Man Continues Box Office Reign

Iron Man continued to rule the international box office, remaining comfortably perched at the #1 slot. The movie comfortably pipped other contenders for the top spot at the box office, with gross returns of $39 million from 7,600 screens spread over 61 global markets.

While Iron Man stayed ahead of its competition, What Happens In Vegas and Speed Racer, the $39 million it recorded over the weekend was a 60% climb-down from its initial burst, which saw it reach an astounding $95.5 million. The margins by which it beat its competition were not too large, staying ahead of Vegas by $16 million and Speed Racer by $26.2 million.

Speaking about the reduced numbers, Paramount Pictures International, one of the overseas distributors, said a possible reason could be the hot weather spell Europe is facing currently. U.K., which saw a 58% slump in returns for Iron Man, recorded temperatures over 85 degrees. In Germany, the movie’s returns slumped by 70 percent.

Iron Man, however, remained at the top of the box office domestically as well, raking in $165 million internationally and ensuring a total worldwide return of $342.1 million so far.

Following Iron Man in second place was the Cameron Diaz-Ashton Kutcher starrer What Happens In Vegas, from the 20th Century Fox stables. The romantic comedy brought in $23 million from 3, 902 screens across 36 markets. A release from Fox said this was a good beginning for the film at the international level, where it has retained the top spot in Scandinavia, the Benelux countries, Germany, and also Austria.

In third place was Speed Racer which, surprisingly, was a little slow off the blocks. The movie brought in $12.8 million from 3, 940 screens across 30 markets. This translates to a somewhat feeble $3,249 per screen. It however, opened at the #1 slot in Korea, bringing in $2.4 million from 229 screens. The first film that the Wachowski brothers have written and directed after their Matrix trilogy, Speed Racer has a worldwide total of $33 million.

Rounding off the top five slots at the weekend box office were romantic comedy Made of Honor from Sony at the fourth spot and 21, another Sony presentation. Made of Honor brought in $3.1 million from 994 screens across nine markets for a total of $19.8 million. 21, on the other hand, drew $2.3 million from 1,350 screens across 39 markets for a total of $41.3 million.