Jon Favreau sounded tired on the phone Sunday morning. It had been a long weekend, but a great weekend. And a profitable one: The director of "Iron Man" was hearing that his film would crack the $100-million mark in its opening weekend, a staggering success for a movie that, as Favreau put it, nobody really cared about or was thinking about when it was announced two years ago.
Favreau and the film's star, Robert Downey Jr., were all over town Thursday and Friday, dropping in at theaters to gauge the crowd reaction and, in some spots, give the fans a bit of a thrill.
"We went to one midnight show and I introduced the movie, then I brought Robert out and the crowd gave him a standing ovation," Favreau said. "You could feel that this movie was really bringing energy to the theater."
"Iron Man" is Favreau's fourth film as a director and, he said with a chuckle, there's now a very good chance that his fifth movie will have the armor-plated hero returning for a victory lap.
"I don't take anything for granted, though," he said, his voice croaky from the string of late nights. "Not after 'Zathura.' " "Zathura" was his previous film, and although the 2005 project had a core of genre fans who adored it, the movie with the hard-to-say title did not connect with a wide audience. It was cruel shock for Favreau, who had a hit with his first big film, the endearing 2003 Will Ferrell holiday movie, "Elf."
The odyssey that brought Favreau to a bit of box-office history ("Iron Man" is the second-biggest non-sequel opening weekend ever, trailing only fellow Marvel Comics property "Spider-Man" in 2002) is an interesting one, with some unexpected paths -- including stints in improv comedy, a somewhat accidental career in writing and even a quick pass through Wall Street.
Favreau grew up in Queens, New York. In the middle of an unfinished run at Queens College, he found himself working at Bear Stearns -- briefly. After he set aside his pursuit of a degree, he wound up in Chicago, working on a comedy career.
His entry point in Hollywood was acting, and his first role of significance was in "Rudy," the 1993 film about Notre Dame football, where he played a rotund tutor. On the set, he met Vince Vaughn, and the pair became close friends and collaborators, as well as Peter Billingsley (famous to several generations as the child star of "A Christmas Story"), whom he works with often and who serves as executive producer of "Iron Man."
