Liz rules with ‘Iron’ fist

I woke up on Monday and checked my phone to see how well Iron Man 3 did this weekend. I got a little bit of a scare when I saw this headline: ‘Iron Man 3’ Breaks Box-Office Records. Luckily, its a poorly written headline and the article makes no mention of the records Iron Man 3 broke, because it didn’t break any records. It did come really, really close, however, making $174.1 million, the second-most ever for an opening weekend; beating out Harry Potter and the  Deathly Hallows Part 2 by $5 million and falling just $33 million short of The Avengers‘ record.

So the question is: Will Iron Man 3 replicate what The Avengers did last summer?

If you remember, last year The Avengers had little competition for 3 weeks, going up against duds like Think Like a Man, Dark Shadows, Battleship, The Dictator and What to Expect When You’re Expecting*. This year Iron Man 3 is pitted against The Great Gatsby this coming week, Star Trek: Into Darkness the next week, and Fast and Furious 6 the following. So, although Iron Man 3 certainly has the potential to continue winning weekends (I do think it wins again next week), I don’t see it dominating the way that The Avengers did. That said, it’s totally going to make $400 million.