"Iron Man" gets heavy start at box office (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "Iron Man," the latest Marvelcomics title brought to the big screen, grossed an estimated$32.5 million from its first full day in North Americantheaters, independent box office analysts reported on Saturday.

That tally, generated from Friday showings in some 4,100U.S. and Canadian cinemas, put "Iron Man" on track to meet orexceed the $85 million-plus opening weekends posted by sequelsto two other Marvel franchises -- "Spider-Man" and "X-Men."

"Iron Man" stars Robert Downey Jr. as a billionaireindustrialist and playboy named Tony Stark who wrestles with amidlife crisis as he invents a high-tech suit of armor thattransforms him into a superhero.

The movie, which cost about $150 million to make andanother $75 million to market, co-stars Oscar winner GwynethPaltrow and has drawn mostly favorable reviews.

Distributed through Viacom Inc's Paramount Pictures, thefilm is the first self-financed production from Marvel Studiosand is being closely watched as the first major release of thesummer movie season.

The 18-weekend stretch from May through August can accountfor as much as 40 percent of Hollywood's total domestic boxoffice receipts for a year.

Neither Paramount nor Marvel issued first-day figures for"Iron Man."

But two box office tracking services, Media By Numbers andBox Office Mojo, both reported the film's estimated Friday takeat $32.5 million, not including receipts from Thursday night"preview" screenings in more than 2,000 theaters.

Media By Numbers estimated preview grosses at about $6million; Box Office Mojo put that number at $5.5 million.

"Iron Man's" opening Friday haul puts in on par with "X2:X-Men United," which grossed $31.2 million its first Friday andwent on to amass $85.6 million in receipts through its firstSunday, all in the same May weekend five years ago.

If Friday's estimates hold up, Media By Numbers presidentPaul Dergarabedian said he expects "Iron Man" to best "X2" andperhaps even meet or surpass the $88.2 million grossed by"Spider-Man 2" in its first weekend in July 2004.

"It might be a little higher than 'X-2' because I thinkthis one's going to have better word of mouth than that movie,"Dergarabedian said. "Whether it beats 'Spider-Man 2' remains tobe seen."

"Spider-Man 3" holds the record for biggest opening weekendof all time, $151 million last May, while the first"Spider-Man" stands at No. 1 for a non-sequel film -- $114.8million in the first weekend of May 2002.

(Editing by Doina Chiacu)