NO #1 RECORDS: But 'Iron Man 2' Opens With 5th Best Opening Weekend; $133.6M Domestic & $194M Overseas For $327M

SUNDAY AM UPDATE: Iron Man 2 didn’t break the big Hollywood record for opening day or one-day or even 3-day weekend. “Hey, it’s Iron Man, not Platinum Man,” one rival studio exec quipped in an email to me. But it did launch with an “A” Cinemascore and $133.6 million, placing at least the 5th and maybe even 4th all-time best grossing weekend. That beats Shrek 3’s $121.6M and possibly Pirates Of The Caribbean 3’s $135.6M. But not Twilight Saga 2: New Moon’s $142.8M, or Spider-Man 3‘s $151.1M, or The Dark Knight’s $158.4M.

This is the first Marvel film to be released since it was acquired by Disney. Distributor Paramount debuted IM2 in 4,380 North American theaters to $46.5M Saturday and $52.4M Friday, including $7.5 million in Thursday midnight shows at just under 3,000 locations. IM2 easily beat the original’s launch of $38.7M/$102.1M from 4,105 locations. But the sequel had reeled in the widest release in Hollywood history. IMAX logged a 3-day domestic total of $10.2M, or 8% of the film’s overall box office for an IMAX 2D opening weekend domestic record, passing Star Trek‘s $8.5M a year ago. (It also outgrossed 3D Avatar’s snow-impacted opening weekend of $9.5M.) 

Kicking off the official summer movie season, IM2 already has earned $194M overseas from almost 60 territories where it opened before the U.S. and Canada, so that’s a $327M worldwide cume. Top grossing countries were Britain and Korea with $23M each. Here’s the Top 10:

1. Iron Man 2 (Marvel/Paramount) NEW [4,380 Runs]
Friday $52.4M, Saturday $46.5M, Weekend $133.6M, Cume $327M
2. Nightmare On Elm Street (New Line/WB) Week 2 [3,332 Runs]
Friday $3.2M, Saturday $3.7M, Weekend $9.1M (-72%), Cume $48.5M
3. How To Train Your Dragon (DWA/Par) Week 7 [3,003 Runs]
Friday $1.7M, Saturday $2.8M, Weekend $6.7M, Cume $201.0M
4. Date Night (Fox) Week 5 [2,734 Runs]
Friday $1.6M, Saturday $2.3M, Weekend $5.3M, Estimated Cume $80.8M
5. The Back Up Plan (CBS Films/Sony) Week 3 [3,003 Runs]
Friday $1.4M, Saturday $1.9M, Weekend $4.3M, Cume $29.4M
6. Furry Vengeance (Summit) Week 2 [3,002 Runs]
Friday $950K (-46%), Saturday $1.6M, Weekend $4.0M, Cume $11.6M
7. Clash Of The Titans (Warner Bros) Week 6 [2,157]
Friday $800K, Saturday $1.0M, Weekend $2.3M, Cume $157.8M
8. Death At A Funeral (Screen Gems/Sony) Week 4 [1,706 Runs]
Friday $575K, Saturday $895K, Weekend $2.1M, Cume $38.2M
9. The Losers (Dark Castle/Warner Bros) Week 3 [2,450 Runs]
Friday $600K, Saturday $755k, Weekend $1.8M, Cume $21.4M
10. Babies (Focus Features) NEW [534 Runs]
Friday $381K, Saturday $689K, Estimated Weekend $1.5M

WEDNESDAY 5:30 PM: Here’s one for the record books. When it arrives in theaters tonight at midnight, Iron Man 2 will have the widest initial release in Hollywood history with Paramount launching the Marvel comic book caper in 4,380 locations. The previous widest opening had been Warner Bros’ The Dark Knight with 4,366 venues. The latest predictions have the Jon Favreau-directed, Robert Downey Jr-starrer poised to make between $155 million to $160 million this 3-day opening weekend, possibly beating TDK‘s $158.4 million.

‘Iron Man 2’ Already Grosses $100M Overseas