Editorials > "Iron Man" Projected to Score Big This Weekend

The moment has finally arrived: Jon Favreau's "Iron Man" is in theaters across the country right now, and by most accounts, everyone wants to see this film. According to Variety, the only demographic that hasn't been tracking well for the film is the "young girl" set who will go see Patrick Dempsey and Michelle Monaghan in "Made of Honor" anyway. But everyone else is practically in line already. Young men, older men, even older women are expected to run to the cinemas this weekend. And to top it off, the reviews have been extremely positive for a superhero movie. That is, if you can call 100 "flawed, but interesting" reviews extremely positive. But before we say anything else, let's get down to what movies are really all about: How much is it going to make this weekend?

It's opening in 4105 theaters, and it's got a Thursday head-start with little to no competition, but there's no way it'll make as much as say, "Spider-man" back in 2002 ($114.8 million). Iron Man has always been something of a "second-tier" hero, if you'll forgive me for saying so. He's never had the kind of mainstream, iconic popularity that Superman, Batman, Spider-man, and perhaps the X-Men have enjoyed. So I'll say on the low end, "Iron Man" will make $75 million and on the high end it's looking at $95 million. "Made of Honor" I'd give a cool 10-15 million dollars. Post your predictions and we'll see how it turns out on Sunday. The most accurate guess wins the glory of knowing that he or she has his/her finger pressed so tightly on the pulse of America that Vermont is about to pop. For the sake of picking one number, we'll say that my guess is $85 million.

-David Morgan