$100 mil.  That's a freakin' opening weekend, gang.  That's only $14 mil shy of the biggest non-sequel opening of all time... Spider-man. 

And let's not kid ourselves.  Tony Stark isn't Peter Parker.  This is a lesser Marvel character. 

So why?  Why did this movie make $100 mil?  I mean, there's been plenty of "lesser" Marvel movies that didn't make that in opening weekend.  Hell, Daredevil made only $102 mil in it's WHOLE DOMESTIC RUN. 

Why did this movie make a shitton of money?  BECAUSE MARVEL CONTROLLED IT.

In 2005, Marvel decided they'd had enough of Hollywood.  Based on that "awesome" X-Men: The Last Stand that was being produced at that point, I can't freakin' blame them.  So they said, "We're getting back all of our properties.  Jerks."  So, while Spidey and the X-Men aren't going immediately back to Marvel, the company has decided that anytime they CAN regain rights to their properties, they will.  And then, they make the movies themselves, with Paramount distributing.

Marvel got a seven-year $525 million revolving-credit deal with Merill Lynch.  And "Iron Man" is the first movie built off that money.  And she freakin' soared.  Strong casting, independent director, and a buzz that just CAN'T BE BEAT.  What was that buzz?  Two things: one, a lot of marketing.  Plenty of TV spots, lots of website talk, etc. Thing two? Reviews.  Reviews better than gold, and reviews you cannot buy.  I mean, all the "omg, GTA IV will sink Iron Man" bullcrap got blown out of the water this weekend by reviews.  Positive review, after positive review, after positive review.

Why the good reviews?  Because this was the first real superhero movie.  Screw X-Men.  Yea, I watched it, but everytime I have to see a 14-year-old play Rogue, I yell.  And piss off, Spider-Man, with your stupid Macho Man Randy Savage cage fight of lame.  Fantastic Four: Rise of the Almight Dollar and Reed Richards dance sequence can bite my shiny metal ass.  THIS movie treated me like an adult.  It treated me like it didn't need to market to me while it was playing.  It wasn't edited based off test audiences until it was the lamest thing playing at theaters.  And, outside of the DC Comics "Batman Begins" fluke (which, while it treated me like an adult, and was amazing, totally ignored the greater DC Comics universe) this was the first time this has happened.  I mean, even the highly enjoyable "Hellboy" owes me a few apologizes for Babe Ruth bars and a corntastic love story.

Somebody read a comic book.  They opened it, and they read it.  They took notes.  They hired people who read the comic book.  And they went to town.  Robert Downey Jr paid attention to who the hell Tony Stark is, and he went and played it.  So what did we get?  A movie without "cringe" moments.  A movie that truly transposed the things that allowed this character to survive decades, even if he wasn't at the front of things.  I know people reading this may not have read much in the way of comics, but we've had 15 Marvel Comic Book movies, and until this past weekend, not one of them had even MENTIONED S.H.I.E.L.D.  And you can't PICK UP an Earth 616 Marvel book for longer than six issues without somebody mentioning S.H.I.E.L.D.  The fact that we have "Avengers" coming down the pipeline with Roberty Downey Jr. and Edward Norton tenatively attached means we may finally get Marvel movies that aren't just based in small groups of characters.

Future is finally here.  Real comic book movies.  Hopefully "The Incredible Hulk" will continue in this vein... I know there have been some major arguments occuring over the editing of this film ("Is it too long?" "Is there too much story?" "I don't know if we should mention S.H.I.E.L.D."), but hopefully the box office numbers will shut up everyone and make them realize, "We can just make the movie we want, and not worry about that crap".  If this continues, that loan with Merill Lynch is gonna look like chump change, and the distribution deal with Paramount is gonna be the best deal ANY major distributor has. 

Thor, Dr. Strange, Captain America, Ant-Man, Black Panther, and more are on the way.  So, call me a True Believer, and know as long as this business model of "Marvel Studios" continues, I will continue to Make Mine Marvel.

'Nuff said.