Weekend Roundup: We Are Iron Man

By Katey Rich

Woo hoo! It's summer movie season at last, which means the return of opening-weekend grosses that were impossible just a week ago. Iron Man blew away the competition this weekend, bringing in just over $100 million starting with its Thursday night sneak previews. That's the second-best opening for a non-sequel, behind only the original Spider-Man. Iron Man brought in nearly another $100 million internationally, guaranteeing that it will be the standard to beat as the summer continues on.

Way, way behind Iron Man, but still doing pretty well for itself, was the romantic comedy Made of Honor, bringing in $15 million. That's just a little less than what Baby Mama made last weekend at #1, and not bad for a counter-programming chick flick. Baby Mama itself did OK this weekend too, falling to #3 and $10 million. And, completing the romantic comedy triumvirate, Forgetting Sarah Marshall came in at #4 with $6 million. It's a shame that that fun comedy will be largely forgotten as summer picks up steam, since it seemed best equipped of all the April releases to compete against the explosions and superheroes of summer.

Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay fell to #5 in its second weekend, bringing in $6 million. It looks likely to follow its predecessor in being a bigger hit on DVD. Behind it once again was the fellow male-skewing The Forbidden Kingdom, at #6 with $4 million. Nim's Island once again proved it has significant legs, taking a drop of less than 40% to land at #7 with $2.7 million. Prom Night is holding on OK as well, falling to #8 and $2.5 million.

Rounding out the top 10, and probably making appearances for the last time, were mini-wonder 21 (#8, $2.1 million) and critical disaster 88 Minutes (#10, $1.6 million). This week the top 10 says goodbye to Horton Hears a Who!, which will quickly lose its mantle of the best-earning film of the year, but still has plenty to be proud of.

In the full top 20 after the jump, we find The Visitor continuing to add screens, Young @ Heart cracking the top 20 for the first time, and, oddly enough, Drillbit Taylor increasing its audience while dropping 275 screens. Did the kids who got turned away from Iron Man go see Drillbit instead? I guess high tides really do raise all boats-- even boats that had been written off and forgotten months ago.

1	N	Iron Man	Par.	$100,750,000	-	4,105	-	$24,543	$104,250,000	$140	1
2	N	Made of Honor	Sony	$15,500,000	-	2,729	-	$5,679	$15,500,000	$40	1
3	1	Baby Mama	Uni.	$10,332,000	-40.6%	2,548	+5	$4,054	$32,330,000	$30	2
4	4	Forgetting Sarah Marshall	Uni.	$6,132,000	-44.4%	2,872	+73	$2,135	$44,804,000	$30	3
5	2	Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay	NL	$6,015,000	-59.7%	2,545	+35	$2,363	$25,270,000	$12	2
6	3	The Forbidden Kingdom	LGF	$4,200,000	-62.5%	2,960	-191	$1,418	$45,124,000	-	3
7	5	Nim's Island	Fox	$2,750,000	-39.5%	2,478	-499	$1,109	$42,544,000	$37	5
8	6	Prom Night (2008)	SGem	$2,500,000	-44.5%	2,434	-387	$1,027	$41,447,000	$20	4
9	7	21	Sony	$2,100,000	-47.7%	2,242	-710	$936	$79,057,000	$35	6
10	8	88 Minutes	Sony	$1,600,000	-55.5%	1,765	-403	$906	$15,424,000	-	3
11	9	Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!	Fox	$1,350,000	-45.7%	1,463	-696	$922	$149,830,000	$85	8
12	10	Deception (2008)	Fox	$865,000	-62.6%	2,001	-	$432	$3,982,000	-	2
13	11	Street Kings	FoxS	$700,000	-67.4%	855	-880	$818	$25,125,000	$20	4
14	13	Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed	RM	$684,000	-51.0%	656	-385	$1,042	$6,619,000	-	3
15	19	Drillbit Taylor	Par.	$679,000	+71.6%	427	-275	$1,590	$31,114,000	-	7
16	16	The Visitor	Over.	$663,000	+38.8%	130	+54	$5,100	$1,633,000	-	4
17	12	Leatherheads	Uni.	$577,000	-68.4%	1,022	-1,233	$564	$30,338,000	$58	5
18	28	Young@Heart	FoxS	$330,000	+50.1%	121	+65	$2,727	$940,000	-	4
-	17	Shine a Light	ParV	$255,000	-40.1%	142	-76	$1,795	$4,823,000	-	5
-	29	The Spiderwick Chronicles	Par.	$243,000	+14.4%	287	-39	$846	$71,180,000	$90	12