I say this because there are people who don't like the twist in this movie, and therefore hate the movie in its entirety. Some would say that the fans didn't like it. But looking at the numbers, this just isn't the case. Iron Man 3 just cracked into the top 5 highest grossing movies of all time. Only behind Avengers, Harry Potter 7-2, Titanic, and Avatar. A natural explanation for this may be the effect the Avengers has had on IM3. I would agree with this explanation if the number was around 850 - 900 million (Iron Man 2 was around 620 million), but grossing over 1.1 billion (and continuously rising) is something else entirely. It means that people love this movie and are watching it over and over.

So does this mean that the majority of the people that saw it, actually enjoyed the movie? Maybe. In terms of RT crittics it has a 78% fresh rating (83% audience), when films like origins wolverine has a 37% , Green Lantern a 26%.I personally really liked it. Greatest comic book movie ever made? heck no. Entertaining and very good movie? Definitely.

If there was any doubt about it before, there certainly is none now: Tony Stark is a money-making machine.

Walt Disney Pictures has revealed that Iron Man 3 has earned $1.142 billion globally after five weeks of release. That puts Ol’ Shellhead in rare company, as the fifth-highest grossing film of all time. The only movies ahead of Iron Man 3 on that list are James Cameron’s Avatar and Titanic, Marvel’s ownThe Avengers, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2.

Additionally, Iron Man 3 holds the record as the second-highest domestic opening of all time at $174.1 million, just behind Marvel’s The Avengers‘ $207.4 million. Stark’s latest has outperformedAvengers in key foreign territories including China, Hong Kong and Russia. It’s the biggest film of all time in Malaysia and Vietnam.

Not bad for a genius, billionaire, playboy philanthropist. Source

And I would just like to add, how crazy is it that an Iron Man film is one of the top 5 highest grossing films of all time?!? This would not have even been thought of 8 years ago. This guy was once a B- list character. And now his film surpasses the likes of Spiderman, and Batman. Isn't that crazy?

Do you think that Iron Man's popularity is cemented? With talks of Kevin Fiege wanting Stark to be like a James Bond character, one that has many reboots. Which could happen, stark has the tech, personality, and marvel behind him to make successful movies. Or do you think this is all RDJ's doing, and IM will be back to pre - 2008 Iron Man.

Robert Downey Jr. and Jon Favreau are the reasons for IM's, and by way of association, Marvel Studio's success. This Marvel tandem of films wouldn't be what it is now without them. So yeah imo the franchise definitely suffers if you remove either of them. Iron Man just isn't Iron Man without RDJ, and the films aren't as good without Favreau at the helm.