Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart as Bella and Edward in New Moon (top); Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark in Iron Man 2 (bottom)


Iron suit or not, Jon Favreau’s Iron Man 2, starring Robert Downey Jr and Gwyneth Paltrow, wasn’t strong enough to surpass the first day opening of, gasp, a "chick flick": Chris Weitz’s The Twilight Saga: New Moon. Robert Pattinson’s lovestruck vampire and Kristen Stewart’s troubled human easily kicked iron ass. How ironic (awful pun intended), considering that Hollywood studios make movies geared to 12-year-old boys and tend to relegate women to the sides, both in front and behind the camera.

According to Box Office Mojo, Iron Man 2’s $52.4m opening, which includes approximately $7.5m it earned at Thursday midnight screenings, is no. 7 on the all-time list for first-day box-office grosses.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon is no. 1 with $72.7m, followed by Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight (the record-holder for a three-day weekend, with $158m), Michael Bay’s Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man 3, Daniel Radcliffe’s Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and Johnny Depp’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.

The original Iron Man opened with $35.2m in 2008.

Figures on the Box Office Mojo chart haven’t been adjusted for inflation, of course, though the difference wouldn’t have been too glaring since most of the movies found on their list are mid-to-late 2000s releases. Exception to this rule: movies that made most (or even a good chunk) of their money at 3D/IMAX venues, e.g., The Dark Knight, Avatar, Alice in Wonderland.

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