With Kick-Ass already out and the second movie in the Iron Man franchise not long away the question stands ready to be answered; who’s going to be more popular.
There are a few indicators that we can take into a discussion like this. One need only look at the success of the first Iron Man movie and compare it to movies like Wanted and we’ll get an idea of who is going to be coming out first in the box office. Iron Man, despite a total lack of Angelina Jolie, managed to rack up almost 2 and a half times the box office income then Wanted did.
In fact, if you add up the domestic gross intakes of independent comic book movies Constantine, Hellboy II and Wanted you still don’t get to the $318 million that Iron Man took in.
You can keep looking and take a look at the cast. The best that Kick-Ass can do for a big name actor is Nicholas Cage, and despite my own love for him I realize he’s not the draw that others are.
On the flipside of that you have a movie that is headed by Robert Downey Jr., who is at his peak as an actor right now, backed up by Scarlett Johansson and Gwyneth Paltro, and joined by Mickey Rourke, Samuel L. Jackson and Don Cheadle. Now that’s how to get people to go to a movie.
So here’s the question. Do you really expect me to believe a story that many have heralded as brilliant will draw a successfully large enough crowd to compete with Iron Man? Will a movie filled to the brim with small children beating the bloody pulp out of one another actually be a draw?
I suggest not. There’s no way that Kick-Ass will come close to Iron Man 2 at the box office, and we can only hope as comic book fans who are hoping other better independent comic books will be made into films that Kick-Ass gets within spitting distance of $100 grand worth at the US box office.