I’m surprised how badly Iron Man beat Speed Racer
May 11, 2008Iron Man absolutely crushed Speed Racer at the box office this weekend. That’s not how summer blockbusters are supposed to work. Last year in May, each week’s new release managed to be the number 1 movie at least for that initial weekend. Only to have its crown taken the following week when some other big blockbuster movie opened.
You could kinda see this coming though. Iron Man was one of the best-rated movies so far this year, while the buzz around Speed Racer was much less positive. I still have a bad taste in my mouth from the last two Wachowski movies, the two Matrix sequels. Frankly Speed Racer would have had to be getting rave reviews before I’d even consider going to see it. Given the lackluster reviews so far I’m never going to be seeing Speed Racer, at least not at the movie theaters. Maybe when the DVD hits the bargain bin at Circuit City.
The size of Iron Man’s victory though is still pretty impressive. They earned $50 million in the second weekend, while Speed Racer only scraped together $20 million in its opening weekend. That is the definition of a whuppin’, Speed Racer definitely got its hat handed to it. I love the brave face that the studio execs put on the performance, but they’ll be lucky to recoup their investment in this one.