I guess Robert Downey Jr. can start training again this Monday, because ‘Iron Man 2′ is pretty much confirmed by now. (for all the latest numbers see Iron Man box office facts and rumors)

‘Iron Man,’ which opened in about 60 territories this week, is expected to make over $100 million this weekend in the US alone. That’s just a couple of million short of the highest non-sequel opening by ‘Spider-man’ in 2002, which made $115 million. Yes Sony, you can be proud too, everybody is happy this weekend. Not even a little game called GTA IV could stop the iron man from exceeding every expectation.

Holding the world in a tight grip, ‘Iron Man’ is expected to exceed the $200 million bar worldwide, which makes it profitable in its first weekend if you don’t consider marketing costs. Not only a remarkable accomplishment for a relatively unknown comic book character, but also for Marvel. It’s their first independently produced picture and they didn’t shy away from taking some bold steps with this one. No studio in their right mind would have taken Robert Downey Jr. for the leading role. And I’m sure the Marvel Entertainment stock will make a little jump ahead of the official weekend numbers this Monday.

Again, you can go here for the Iron Man box office totals.

Ok, so there are a lot of box office numbers floating around for the movie with all the buzz this opening weekend, a little film called ‘Iron Man.’ We already brought you the forecast, predictions, early numbers and overseas estimates, but here is really all we have for the iron man thus far.

Budget estimate: $186 million
Marketing estimate: $50 million

US theaters this weekend: 4,105
US predictions for the weekend: ranging from $70 to $125 million

US Thursday box office estimate: $5.2 million
US Friday box office estimate: $35 million (incl. $1.7m Thursday night)
US Saturday box office estimate: $38 million
Overseas estimate for the weekend (57 territories): $97 million

Worldwide estimate for the weekend: $201 million

Highest gross outside US: Mexico with $4 million (2 days)

Recent Fandango ticket sales for ‘Iron Man’: 81%

Metacritic.com score: 7.8 (35 reviews)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 94% fresh
IMDB score: 8.3 (3,102 votes)

Broken legs during shooting: 1 (Gwyneth Paltrow)

Loser this weekend: ‘Made of Honor’ (kinda, only $15.5m)

Almost confirmed release date for ‘Iron Man 2′: summer 2010

If I missed anything, let me know.