Iron Man 2 already set for April 2010

TOPH TUCKER ‘08

The summer blockbuster Iron Man began showing in theaters last Thursday, and took in $100.7 million domestically on its first weekend. Its worldwide total currently stands at around $198 million. Reviews have been overwhelmingly positive; it stands at a 93% “fresh” rating on rottentomatoes.com. (I mean, it’s no Grand Theft Auto IV, with that ridiculous 99% average, but hey, what is?)

Those of you who saw Iron Man and stayed through the credits (please do) got a pretty heavy-handed tip-off that there’d be a sequel. Today Marvel announced that sure enough, Iron Man 2 will hit theaters on April 30, 2010. (Clear your calendars!)

The more interesting part of the announcement was that, in addition to The Incredible Hulk coming this June 13, Marvel will also be releasing Thor (June 4, 2010), The First Avenger: Captain America (May 6, 2011), The Avengers (July 2011), and Ant-Man. Moreover, these films will all exist in the same “universe.” That is, Robert Downey Jr. will appear in The Incredible Hulk as Tony Stark (aka Iron Man), and they’ll all co-mingle in the films after that. This is possible thanks to Marvel financing these newer films independently, as opposed to licensing its superheroes to outside studios (like it did for Spider-Man, X-Men, and Fantastic Four).

What do you think? Is this new strategy a winner? Was the film any good? How crazy is GTA’s average? (OK, that last one is a little off-topic.) Leave your comments below.

Further Reading:
MSNBC.com: Iron Man 2
MSNBC.com: Iron Man box office receipts
Iron Man on BoxOfficeMojo.com
Iron Man on RottenTomatoes.com