Iron Man 3 To Hold Off Strong Competition From Gatsby At Box Office

The Great Gatsby

is exceeding expectations and looks to open at between $50 and $60 million this weekend, bringing it much closer to Iron Man 3 than anyone could have expected. That's a coup for director Baz Luhrmann; the arthouse favorite has never had a movie open with more than $20 million in its first weekend and, in fact, it appears as though The Great Gatsby has a good chance of eclipsing the lifetime gross of any Lurhmann film this weekend alone. The most money one of his films has ever made was Moulin Rouge, which took in a domestic total of $57 million. In fact, if you add up the biggest single weekend for all four of Luhrmann's previous films as a director (Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge and Australia), you'll come in at less than $42 million. It's also good news for Warner Bros., who spent big on Gatsby but had been hearing from all the experts that it was likely to underperform. The Marvel Studios threequel, meanwhile, is still a virtual lock for first place at the box office as analysts are expecting a drop-off of just a bit more than what The Avengers lost week-over-week. That would place the film anywhere between $70 and $87 million, depending on the Mother's Day holiday's effect on overall attendance.