Hotly-anticipated “Iron Man 2” officially opens Friday, guaranteeing a massive start to the 2010 summer movie season.
According to Variety, most box office projections for the sequel are forecasting a debut weekend in the $125-135 million mark. Some of the more optimistic analysts, however, believe it even stands a chance of testing “The Dark Knight”‘s $158.4 million box office record.
“Iron Man” premiered in 2008 as one of the most critically-acclaimed comic adaptations of all time; its current Rotten Tomatoes score is 93/100. The film was also a box office smash, opening to the weekend tune of $98.6 million en route to a $318.4 million domestic total. Its opening day receipts amounted to $35.2 million.
Though “Iron Man 2” has not been as universally-praised by critics, its 69/100 score on Rotten Tomatoes means that it has been reviewed more than well enough to prevent the killing of the film’s “sequel buzz.” It should thus have no trouble dominating the $35.2 million figure today as it works to land well into the nine figure realm for the weekend.