Iron Man Vs Captain America: A Win For Civil War, Marvel And Disney At The Box Office

Iron Man and Captain America battle head to head in the latest blockbuster film from the Marvel comics stable but it’s really the box office – and parent company Disney – that won this opening weekend. Captain America: Civil War raked in $181.8 million, topping fellow Marvel movie spinoff Iron Man 3, which garnered $174 million on its opening weekend in 2013.

The figure effectively bumps Iron Man 3 out of its previous ranking, with Captain America: Civil War racking up the fifth-highest grossing weekend in movie watching history. It continues the momentum that is solidifying the Disney/Marvel juggernaut’s dominance of the box office worldwide.

Iron Man 3 vs Captain America – The Figures

As reported in Forbes, box office figures for Captain America: Civil War include $75.253 million for the Thursday night preview and Friday’s opening day alone. That take beats Iron Man 3‘s $68.8 million sales for opening day, which also includes the preview evening’s take. Saturday’s ticket sales added up to $61 million, making it the fifth highest Saturday box office of all time. The $181.8 million figure represents an estimate for the whole weekend, with the final box office figures for Captain America: Civil War to be confirmed on Monday.

As compared to the other top five weekends in movie history – populated largely by comic book and fantasy films – Captain America: Civil War‘s box office is also well ahead of Batman v Superman at $166 million and just behind Avengers: Age of Ultron’s opening weekend of $191 million. Captain America: Civil War‘s take for the weekend dominated the total weekend’s ticket sales as per comScore, the industry standard for audience measurement. As reported in Deadline Hollywood, Captain America: Civil War captured 77 percent of the total weekend’s total ticket sales of $235 million.

The Marvel – Disney Marriage

Captain America: Civil War is another heavy hitter in a string of successes for Marvel Entertainment, LLC and The Walt Disney Company, which has been its home since 2009. Disney’s distribution chief Dave Hollis is quoted in a Deadline article.

“When you think of the storied nature of the film business and that four of the top six (domestic) openings of all-time come out of the Marvel universe within an eight-year period — that’s 13 movies combined for nearly $10 billion worth of box office – it’s a testament to the entire creative team at Marvel Studios led by Kevin Feige. They’ve established an interlocking universe that’s unprecedented and unparalleled in entertainment today with a collection of gifted filmmakers and talent who are invested in the overarching vision of the MCU.”

Captain America: Civil War is scoring highly positive with audiences, meaning the movie has legs, as they say in the industry. Based on this weekend’s momentum, it may gross as much as $1 billion worldwide within a couple of weeks. With production costs of $250 million, the movie represents another profitable entry in the Marvel films franchise.

Iron Man, Captain America and the Marvel Universe

While the Iron Man 4 movie is still up in the air, the Iron Man character, however, is rumored to have a role in the next Spider-man film as young Peter Parker’s mentor. Just before Captain America: Civil War‘s release on Friday, Vox magazine conducted a poll comparing the two superheroes. While most of the respondents seemed to prefer the character and superhero moral qualities of Captain America, a majority of the people questioned preferred Iron Man’s costume and more than 40 percent thought that Iron Man would kick Captain America’s butt in a one-on-one battle on the ground – but not at the box office.

[Image via Marvel Studios]