All eyes were on Disney's (DIS -0.13%) blockbuster superhero film Iron Man 3 this past weekend, and the film delivered at the box office. In its domestic debut weekend, the Marvel-inspired Iron Man 3 drew a jaw-dropping $175.3 million at the domestic box office, according to data from media measurement firm Rentrak.
That figure was the second-largest domestic opening weekend of all time, trailing only Disney's fellow Marvel film The Avengers, released last year. It also obliterated the competition: This weekend's second-place film, Pain And Gain, distributed by Viacom (NASDAQ: VIA) subsidiary Paramount Pictures, pulled in just $7.6 million at the domestic box office.
Iron Man performed just as well outside of the U.S., raking in sales of $175.9 million internationally for a $351 million weekend. The film has already gained more than $680 million in worldwide revenue over its brief run after opening earlier in select international locales. That total has more than tripled the film's reported $200 million budget and surpassed the cumulative box office sales of both previous installments of the Iron Man franchise.
