“IRON MAN 2” IS NO BATMAN

Iron Man 2 kicked off the movie industry’s summer season on Friday with $52.4 million, a solid opening, to be sure, but nothing even approaching the $67.2 million that The Dark Knight took in during its first day in theaters in 2008, when it went on to earn $158.4 million for its opening weekend. (The single-day record is held by The Twilight Saga: The New Moon with $72.7 million.) Nevertheless, the results are nearly 50 percent ahead of the original Iron Man‘s $35.2-million Friday opening in 2008. Prior to Friday several box-office forecasters had prephesied that the Iron Man sequel would have a decent shot at toppling The Dark Knight‘s record — something that now no longer looks attainable. Analysts have now lowered their predictions for the movie to around $125-130 million for the weekend.

UPDATE:
On Sunday, Paramount, which is distributing Iron Man 2, announced that the film had opened with an estimated $133.6 million, making it the fifth-highest debut of all time. As predicted, Nightmare on Elm Street (2010), last weekend’s winner,  plummeted 72 percent in its second week to an estimated $9.2 million, bringing its total gross to $48.5 million after ten days.