The strength of Iron Man
Downey and Marvel created a box office behemoth few could have imagined
Warning: Some spoilers to The Avengers: Endgame are revealed in this piece.
When Robert Downey Jr. and Marvel got together for Iron Man in 2007, the two could have been looking in the mirror. They were both down and out and in need of redemption.
Downey was well removed from his wunderkind years of Less than Zero and Chaplin after a series of tabloid scandals. Marvel was undertaking the risky launch of a studio without its biggest characters (Spider-Man and X-Men were licensed to other studios), forcing it to go with the lesser-known Tony Stark.
No one thought Iron Man could be an A-list superhero. And no one thought Downey could be an A-list star.
Eleven years, later, practically to the weekend, Downey and Iron Man have overturned both assumptions. Pundits who questioned the idea of a blockbuster with a forgotten character and a washed-up actor have been forced to eat crow, many helpings of it.
All of eight of Downey’s films have been smashes. Downey’s Marvel Cinematic Universe films have grossed $9.45 billion worldwide. Daniel Radcliffe, in eight Harry Potter movies, has grossed $7.72 billion. (All figures in U.S. dollars.)
That number has vaulted well over $10 billion as the ninth Downey Marvel picture, The Avengers: Endgame, hit theatres last weekend. Downey’s emotional farewell in the movie coincides with an expiring contract and a desire to move on to the next phase of career. His departure from Marvel marks a rare event in Hollywood — a relationship that is peaking critically and financially as it ends.
Endgame grossed an estimated $350 million in North America and $859 million overseas in its first weekend, easily surpassing the previous opening-weekend records in both categories (held by The Avengers: Infinity War) by more than 30 per cent each. Some analysts believe Endgame’s global total could eventually surpass Avatar’s $2.78 billion, the current record holder for highest worldwide box office not adjusting for inflation. It has all been building to this, the Downey-Avengers marriage culminating in the biggest title of the series.
“What I find amazing about this franchise is that they managed to walk the tightrope between becoming just massively bloated and impossible to follow and putting together films that were actually interesting every time,” said Bruce Nash, a movie-industry analyst who runs the box office site The Numbers. “And that has some together into a complete whole at the end.”
And it all could be tracked back to that spring of 2008 weekend when Iron Man became a surprise hit with an $98-million opening that was the second-highest ever for a non-sequel at the time.
As a tarnished star and the cinematically forgotten comic character, Downey and Iron Man seemed a strange pair. But somehow that made them well suited to each other — the underused film property with the underachieving talent.
It didn’t hurt that Downey had the kind of acting skills rarely seen in a superhero movie.
Downey’s versatility, his uncanny blend of vulnerability and swagger, helped elevate Iron Man, distinguishing it from being just a brand exercise with interchangeable parts.
In contrast to the strong, silent heroes of the age, Downey did it differently. He was smaller, with a quicksilver tongue and sharp wit. He was always on his game. And he projected depth.
The year after Iron Man, Disney, seeing the potential for an entire universe of characters, bought Marvel and wisely left studio chief Kevin Feige in place. And Feige continued putting his chips on Downey.
The actor, at the time a very un-marquee 44, would nonetheless carry another Iron Man in 2010, and then two years later become the cornerstone of The Avengers, the film that managed to be a Downey vehicle and an ensemble powerhouse at the same time.
Modern Hollywood movies are usually a one-way equation for actors. In franchise films, the property makes the actor, not the other way around.
The reverse is true for stand-alone and original hits, where the movie would often be nothing without performers.
But what’s unique about Downey and Iron Man is how the power went in both directions.
The property elevated the actor and the actor made the property. Neither could thrive without the other. Try to imagine Iron Man or even the MCU, without Downey.