"Iron" a precious metal for Marvel

Who would have thought iron would be worth so much gold?

As you've likely already heard, "Iron Man" was a smash hit its debut frame taking in $104 million domestically and about $97 million abroad for an impressive total north of $200 million. Not a bad start for a movie that Reuters (via Yahoo!) says cost Marvel about $150 million to make and $75 million to market.

The movie itself is remarkable for a number of things, most notably it being perhaps the purest adaptation of a comicbook superhero to screen ever accomplished. The little things that drive fans nuts are all in the right place — everything from the armor A.I. being named "Jarvis" to seeing a "Roxxon" building in the background of the freeway fight and Terrence Howard's Rhodey looking at a suit of armor and saying, "Next time." As critics have been saying (mostly), the big stuff all works too, with Robert Downey Jr. making an ideal Tony Stark, the writers turning in an entertaining script and excellent visual effects that avoid looking too much like a videogame about 95 percent of the time. In all, it's excellent as an "Iron Man" film and very good as an overall movie.

If you didn't stick around through the credits, you missed a very cool tag scene featuring a certain SHIELD director, played by Samuel L. Jackson. If you did miss it, then Marvel's 1st quarter report this morning contains some relevant spoiler material, as the company announced "Iron Man 2" will come out April 30, 2010, with "Thor" to debut on June 4, 2010, followed in 2011 by "Captain America: The First Avenger" on May 6 and "The Avengers" in July. While that means Marvel itself won't produce any pics for 2009, Fox's "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" will ensure a steady stream of Marvel movies at the box office.

Meanwhile, that financial report shows Marvel beating expectations on its 1st quarter results. The report shows a drop in revenues attributed to a decline in Spider-Man licensing over last year, when "Spider-Man 3" was gearing up. Publishing results were down $1 million, or about 4 percent, based largely on strong sales last year of Civil War and the death of Captain America.