Sci-Fi Storm

In this first official image from the set of Iron Man 3, you can see that Tony Stark has an increasing number of power suits…we count 7, not including parts. It will be interesting to see what each of them is best used for – other than just for style…

As the Superhero Steamroller called The Avengers rolls over everything, taking in another $55 million in it’s third weekend and burying Battleship, which may be on it’s way to become Universal’s John Carter (both of which starred Taylor Kitsch…hmmm…hope he isn’t invested in Facebook stock…), Marvel/Disney wants to ride the high and has infused the just-started Iron Man 3 with an additional $60 million in it’s budget…raising the total to $200 million, according to Latino-Review. That’s a lot of explosions and devastation…no idea exactly what they’ll spend it on, I just hope they do so wisely, and not on Tony Stark’s Scotch budget.

Jon Favreau, who brought Iron Man to the screen twice to large box offices and bringing comic-based movies back to the forefront, has told Marvel Studios he will not return for Iron Man 3. I’m sure we’ll get an official reason from one or both sides soon (and will likely step around the issue), but the street-word is that it was either the studio wanting to throw in a bunch of other Marvel heroes into the movie in the hopes of seeding more spinoffs (I thought that was what The Avengers was for?), and/or Favreau’s price tag this time around. And with Marvel now owned by Disney (they paid $4 billion for Marvel, and another $115 million to Paramount to fully own the rights to Iron Man 3 and The Avengers), Disney dislikes the idea of too many gross-based contracts skimming off their money.

Let me throw out another idea – rather than throwing in more heroes to seed more movies, Disney may want to take advantage of their ownership to seed their theme parks, which thus far have not benefited from the acquisition and thanks to Universal Orlando’s open-ended contact for a number of the major characters (Spider-Man, The Hulk, etc.), Disney would need to raise visibility of some to be able to capitalize.

Favreau will still work with Disney in the near-term, however – he’s working on the tentatively-titled Magic Kingdom project, which deals with a family trapped in the Disney park at night – where the the characters come to life.

Update: Jon Favreau confirmed the news on Twitter.

Disney’s first major benefit of acquiring Marvel may be in the distribution rights to the upcoming Marvel films The Avengers and Iron Man 3, with Paramount assigning the rights to Disney for a guaranteed minimum up front of $115 million against the distribution fees. Paramount will retain the rights on Thor and Captain America.

There is a lot of buzz about Iron Man 2 potentially beating out The Dark Knight for the opening weekend gross receipts weekend record, and it is getting a good start with $7.5 million from midnight showings on more than 2500 screens in the U.S., but it is well short of the target record of $18.5 million. Batman did have the advantage of almost 2000 more screens at the time, and Iron Man will gain around that today, so we have yet to see what the ultimate results will be.

Seeing some of the early reviews of Iron Man 2, there is a lot of variance. Although Rotten Tomatoes currently is giving it a 75%, The Hollywood Reporter was quite down on it: “Everything fun and terrific…has vanished…” And from across the pond, where the movie opens this week, The Mirror calls it “a travesty – a mind-numbingly dull, chaotic and often unwatchable muddle.”

ROBERT DOWNEY JR. TO APPEAR ON “JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE: AFTER THE ACADEMY AWARDS®,” ALONG WITH A MUSICAL PERFORMANCE FROM GRAMMY® AWARD WINNER KEITH URBAN

Host Jimmy Kimmel welcomes two-time Academy Award®-nominated Robert Downey Jr. and a musical performance by Grammy Award® winner Keith Urban to the fifth consecutive “Jimmy Kimmel Live: After the Academy Awards”, SUNDAY, MARCH 7, immediately following the late local news (12:05-1:05 a.m., ET, approx). Downey will introduce the world premiere of the new “Iron Man 2” trailer only moments before Urban performs his new hit single, “‘Til Summer Comes Around,” from his 2009 album, “Defying Gravity.”
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