‘Iron Man 3’ passes $400 million in the U.S.

Tony Stark is even richer than Robert Downey Jr. 

Marvel’s “Iron Man 3” continues to fly to new heights, with the threequel crossing the $400 million mark at the domestic box office earlier today.

It’s the first to cross $300 million this year, let alone $400 million, which makes it  to date the biggest domestic earner of 2013 by far’. In second place is “Oz the Great and Powerful,” with a distant $234 million.

Newcomer “Man of Steel” earned less than “Iron Man 3” in its opening weekend, but has made $152 million in less than a week, and could pose a threat to both “Oz” and “Iron Man 3’s” standings once the dust has settled. 

Furthermore, “Iron Man 3” is only the 17th film in history to cross the $400 million mark domestically, and should have no problem moving past the next few films on the all-time domestic hit list, which includes such smashes as “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” ($402.1 million), “Jurassic Park” ($402.4 million), “Spider-Man” ($403.7 million) and “The Hunger Games” ($408 million).

Worldwide, “Iron Man 3” has so far picked up $1.2 billion, and stands as the fifth highest-grossing film of all-time, trailing “Avatar” (2009), “Titanic” (2009), “The Avengers” (2012) and “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2” (2011).

The Marvel threequel is leaving its filmic predecessors in the dust, as 2008’s “Iron Man” earned $318 million and 2010’s “Iron Man 2” scored $312 million. However, it won’t approach the total domestic gross of last year’s “The Avengers,” which also featured Downey as Iron Man. That film earned a whopping $623 million, behind only James Cameron’s one-two punch of “Titanic” and “Avatar” on the all-time domestic chart.

“Iron Man 3” also stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Ben Kingsley and Guy Pearce, and was directed by Shane Black.  

×