LOS ANGELES – Iron Man 3 was the heavy-lifter at theatres with a colossal overseas debut that overshadowed a gang of mercenary bodybuilders in a sleepy pre-summer weekend at the domestic box office.
The superhero sequel starring Robert Downey Jr. got a head-start on its domestic launch next Friday with a $195.3 million opening in 42 overseas markets, distributor Disney reported Sunday.
That topped the $185.1 million start for Marvel’s The Avengers, which opened in 39 markets over the same weekend last year a week ahead of its record-breaking domestic debut of $207.4 million.
Director Michael Bay’s Pain & Gain, a true-crime tale of bodybuilders on the make, muscled into first-place domestically with a $20 million debut.
The movie starring Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson and Anthony Mackie knocked off Tom Cruise’s sci-fi adventure Oblivion after a week in the No. 1 spot. Oblivion slipped to second-place with $17.4 million, raising its domestic total to $64.7 million.
The Big Wedding tanked at No. 4 with just $7.5 million. The ensemble cast includes Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton, Robin Williams, Susan Sarandon and Katherine Heigl, but the movie was almost universally trashed by critics and held little interest for audiences.
Oblivion was down a fairly steep 53 per cent from the movie’s $37.1 million domestic debut the previous weekend.
Overseas, Oblivion took in $12.8 million to lift its international haul to $134.1 million and worldwide total to just under $200 million.
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