Iron Man 3 becomes the fifth biggest film of all time

Having surpassed the box office haul of The Dark Knight Rises late last week to become the highest-grossing solo superhero movie, Marvel's Iron Man 3 has now moved above Skyfall, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and Transformers: Dark of the Moon to crack the top five in the list of the biggest earners of all time.

Since rolling out across the globe from late April, Iron Man 3 has pulled in $367.5 million on home soil, as well as a stellar international take of $774.8 million to give Marvel's first Phase Two offering a global haul of $1.142 billion. The Robert Downey Jr.-headlined sequel has obviously benefited from the success of last year's The Avengers, and should now go on to exceed the total gross of both Iron Man and Iron Man 2 combined ($1.209 billion, if you're wondering). However, it could struggle to climb any further in the all time chart, with the $1.341 billion of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 looking like it could be a step too far.

Iron Man 3 sees Robert Downey Jr. leading a cast that includes Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts, Don Cheadle as Rhodey / Iron Patriot, Guy Pearce as Aldrich Killian, Ben Kingsley as The Mandarin, James Badge Dale as Savin and Rebecca Hall as Maya Hansen. Read our reviews here, here and here and for more thoughts from our writing team, check out our Iron Man 3 Podcast.