Batman V Superman Passes Iron Man At Box Office

Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice continues its slow march toward the top ten comic book movies ever at the domestic box office.

It's currently in eleventh place, having just overtaken Iron Man, just about exactly on pace with where people expected it to when the week started.

Batman V Superman has made over $851 million worldwide, but only $319.5 million of that is in North America. That puts it ahead of Iron Man's $318.4 million.

To make it into the top ten and stay there, it will likely have to achieve at least $336 million -- enough to pass Spider-Man, which it already has done at the international box office. That's because Batman V Superman has been in theaters for long enough that its domestic weekends are slowing way down, while Marvel's Captain America: Civil War is expected to do huge numbers.

While Batman V Superman passed Captain America: The First Avenger and Captain America: The Winter Soldier with ease, Civil War is being eyed as more of an Avengers sequel than a Captain America one. The presence of Robert Downey, Jr.'s Iron Man is a big factor, since no film that starred him in a principal role has earned less than $300 million domestically and one of those films -- Marvel's The Avengers -- is the highest-grossing comic book movie of all time.

That means that it's likely Civil War -- which has stellar reviews so far and no serious competition for its first three weeks at the box office -- could eclipse Batman V Superman's current take. That would mean Dawn of Justice would have to be sitting at the #9 spot all time -- Spider-Man's spot, $3 million better than #10 Guardians of the Galaxy -- to remain in the top ten.

While the film is already the top-grossing Superman film ever made. It's unlikely at this juncture to earn the $449 million necessary to eclipse The Dark Knight Rises at the domestic box office, meaning that unless something unexpected happens, it will likely end its run as the third-highest-grossing DC Comics adaptation at both the domestic and worldwide box office, behind The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises.

Fearing the actions of a god-like Super Hero left unchecked, Gotham City's own formidable, forceful vigilante takes on Metropolis's most revered, modern-day savior, while the world wrestles with what sort of hero it really needs. And with Batman and Superman at war with one another, a new threat quickly arises, putting mankind in greater danger than it's ever known before.