Paramount Pictures and Marvel Studios’ Iron Man 2 opened to an estimated $52.4 million on Friday (including midnight showings) in a record 4,380 theaters, marking the seventh-best opening day ever. If the estimate holds, it surpassed Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith‘s opening day of $50 million.
The top opening days of all time belong to The Twilight Saga: New Moon ($72.7 million) and The Dark Knight ($67.2 million). The Batman movie went on to set a new opening weekend of $158.4 million, a number Iron Man 2 won’t be able to reach, but the Jon Favreau-directed sequel should still be able to enter the top five of the best domestic openers of all time. The original Iron Man debuted to $98.6 million in May of 2008.
Going into Friday, Iron Man 2 had earned about $139.5 million internationally, but that number should be significantly higher once Friday’s overseas earnings are released.
