I have to admit, movies that typically have a lot of hype, tend to do very poorly in the movie theaters. For example, let’s look at the following overhyped movies that came from the Top 25 Turkeys:

#11 – Catwomen

  • Budget: $100 million
  • Domestic Gross: $40.2 million

#10 – Battlefield Earth

  • Budget: $73 million
  • Domestic Gross: $21.5 million

#9 – Gigli

  • Budget: $54 million
  • Domestic Gross: $6.1 million

#8 – Waterworld

  • Budget: $175 million
  • Domestic Gross: $88.2 million

And the list goes on and on and on. Where if you look a movie like The Matrix, we see that the initial promotions for it provoked the movie goer and what did that end up with–a BLOCKBUSTER hit trilogy that grossed more than $592,370,339!!!! Now 1/2 a BILLION is not bad at all!

Now with Iron Man, we have to look a little deeper than the surface. To start with, let’s start with the studio, Marvel Studios. They have put out a load of hit movies:

  • Blade
  • Blade II
  • Blade: Trinity
  • Daredevil
  • Elektra
  • Fantastic Four
  • Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
  • Ghost Rider
  • Hulk
  • Spider-Man
  • Spider-Man 2
  • Spider-Man 3
  • The Punisher
  • Punisher: War Zone
  • X-Men Origins: Wolverine
  • X-Men
  • X2: X-Men United
  • X-Men: The Last Stand

Now let’s face it, not all of these movies were great–in fact, let’s go as far as to say that most of the movies up here were a COMPLETE FLOP! But starting in 2005, Marvel Studio’s has entered their own space, and set out to produce their own films with Paramount distributing them. What this means is that Marvel will have their own creative control over their movies.

How does this translate into quality movies, take Iron Man–WHAT A FANTASTIC movie! Now without providing a spoiler, you first have to get past the:

  • Cheap comedy relief
  • Male chauvinist attitude
  • Superiority complex (cocky attitude)

When you get past these flaws, the rest is absolutely incredible. The tech was believable and realistic. The duality between good and bad was very nicely complimented. There was a mature theme to the movie, one that you can’t tell in other Marvel-type movies. This one I actually saw twice in one weekend, and that is UNHEARD of!