seven reasons it rules the world There's no doubting the box-office success of Iron Man 3 - $680 million worldwide in less than two weeks, and the second-biggest opening weekend ($174 million) in US history - but the big question is why. Why has this movie struck such a chord with so many people? To the naked eye, it's just another entry in the ledger of Hollywood's favourite genre, the BSU (Blowing S--- Up) film. But there's a lot more behind Iron Man 3's performance than well-orchestrated explosions, so let's go in search of explanations. The way Robert Downey jnr has resurrected his career is every bit as impressive as the way Tony Stark rebuilds (over and over) his jet-propelled flying suits. The Fallen Hero The first trailer released for the film, in October 2012, opened with a shot of snowflakes falling to the ground where a battered Iron Man lies. It's a powerful image (it actually comes about halfway through the film, by which stage Tony Stark has been brought to his knees plenty) and it's a crucial one in the universe Iron Man inhabits. Click here to view our full movies coverage The Marvel films (and comic books) love a fallen hero, a character possessed of some great freakish superpower (Spider-Man, say) or technological advantage (Iron Man himself) who has been brought to earth with a thud (in the case of The Hulk, literally so). This righteous but weakened character is the personification of America itself - a personification personified, if you will, in Captain America - and the fallen hero's struggle to raise himself back to his full (super) -manly height resonates not just with Americans, but with all those who admire, consciously or otherwise, what we once called The American Way. And believe it or not, we used to use that phrase without irony. In short, the classic Marvel story arc is one in which the hero falls and then rises again. Iron Man 3 is that writ large. Robert Downey jnr is Tony Stark is Iron Man Still on that trailer, as he lies there in the snow Tony Stark starts to talk in voiceover. I've got a lot of apologies to make... The apology thing comes straight from the AA playbook, and it deliberately blurs the distinction between Stark and the man playing him, Robert Downey jnr. We all know the long and sordid (and occasionally hilarious) back story in which Downey jnr - widely perceived to be one of the greatest actors of his generation - very nearly squandered it all. Multiple arrests, followed by some genuine jail time; he was once caught, loaded, with a gun and smack and coke in his car; in a drugged-out stupor he wandered into a neighbour's house and fell asleep. The guy was a mess, and, yes, he had a lot of apologies to make. But he's been sober since 2003, and the way he has resurrected his career is every bit as impressive as the way Tony Stark rebuilds (over and over) his jet-propelled flying suits. Ingeniously, Iron Man 3 lets us have it both ways, starting with a glimpse of Stark in bad-boy mode in a flashback to "where it all began" on New Year's Eve 1999. He's brash and boozy and a little boorish ... but a lot more fun than the guy who's settled down with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow). So long as you don't actually have to live with him, that is. Of course, a massive part of the appeal of Tony Stark is in Downey's flip humour, the casually brutal putdown smoothed away with a soupcon of that famous charm (no longer boyish but still magnetic). There's a question mark hanging over the future of Downey jnr in the role; he is out of contract and if Disney (which owns Marvel) were to cast someone else it wouldn't be the first time a hero had been handballed to another actor, as if to say the role is bigger than the man (DC's Batman was played by Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer and George Clooney in quick succession before finding a dark and steady groove with Christian Bale as the Dark Knight). But there's little doubt this role belongs to Downey jnr - if he wants it, and if Disney can afford him. So how much is he worth? A lot. He reportedly pulled in about $50 million through his salary and profit share on The Avengers, in which he was just one part of an ensemble cast. Any new deal will have to turn Iron into a heck of a lot of gold. Terrorism In Iron Man 3, Tony Stark is clearly struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder. "Nothing's been the same since New York," he says repeatedly. That's a reference to the climactic battle in last year's The Avengers, but no American movie featuring explosions and destruction on a massive scale can use the words "New York" and not have it work as a symbolic shorthand for 9/11. And it's true. For America - and, indeed, for the rest of us - nothing has been the same since New York. In the ad for the film that debuted during the Super Bowl in February, the terrorism threat was made explicit, with an explosion ripping a hole in Air Force One, the presidential jumbo. In the film itself, the sense of competing ideologies is embodied in the character of Ben Kingsley's Mandarin, who says "some people call me a terrorist; I consider myself a teacher," against a backdrop of vaguely Islamic symbols. Kingsley's performance - by turns menacing and hilarious - is one of the great delights of Iron Man 3, and reason enough to see the film. True, this whole terrorism trope is a little commonplace now - the sight of Air Force One with a gaping hole in its side has become almost as familiar as images of the White House being blown to bits (a trend that actually started with Roland Emmerich's Independence Day in 1996) - but it still works. In part, it does so because it allows audiences a bet each way: it stokes a sense of genuine outrage (how dare they attack us?) while simultaneously playing to a deep loathing of the organs of government (did you see that sucker blow; how awesome was that?). This ambivalence is played out in Iron Man 3 in the depictions of all "official" authority figures: a president with oil on his hands (a nod to the BP Gulf of Mexico spill of 2010); a vice-president willing to get blood on his hands for a shot at power; soldiers who have become indiscriminate killing machines. In a world where you don't feel safe and you don't trust your leaders or protectors, a reformed alcoholic playboy with a metal suit probably seems like a reasonable option. The Avengers Last year's all-in-one adventure was the biggest hit ever from Marvel Studios. So big, in fact, that it obscures the fact that not every Marvel outing has been a hit (Howard the Duck, anyone?) even if they gross, on average, a staggering $376.6 million. In a sense, The Avengers was the main game to which so many other Marvel movies - Thor, Captain America, the multiple attempts to make a viable big-screen Hulk - were building, and it paid off, with a $1.5 billion global take, making it the third most successful film of all time in raw dollar terms, behind only Avatar and Titanic. Iron Man 3 has, to a fairly significant degree, benefited from that; as some have noted, it is as much a sequel to The Avengers as it is to Iron Man 2, a film that did extremely well in spite of not being as liked as its predecessor. Each successful Marvel film acts as an advance marketing campaign for the next one, introducing new audiences to the characters and whetting the appetite for more instalments. It's the comic-book model extended into film, and it's by no means the sole province of Marvel or even DC; every franchise and sequel operates on the same principle. It's just that the Marvel films do it especially well. In the case of Iron Man 3, the potential pay-off for Disney is enormous. There's an Avengers sequel coming, and if Iron Man 3 tops the $1 billion mark, as seems almost certain, who knows what The Avengers 2 might do? And if they can just beef up the role of The Hulk in the next one, maybe they can finally get that franchise working too (a word on that point: stay till the end credits have rolled in Iron Man 3, as there's a delightful little coda with Mark Ruffalo, who plays Bruce Banner/Hulk in The Avengers). Digital, 3D and 4D cinema In 2008, the year before Avatar was released, there were 2500 3D screens in the world; by the end of last year there were more than 45,000, half the total cinema screens on the planet. They don't have to take 3D films but they can - and a ticket to a 3D film costs more (in Australia, about 25 per cent more). Since Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) all Marvel's mainline releases have been in both 2D and 3D; Iron Man 3 has even been released in 4D in Japan - complete with smog effects and seat movements and added smells (a throwback to the 1970s fad of Sensurround and John Waters' camp scratch-and-sniff Smell-O-Vision gimmick for his 1981 film Polyester). And all those 3D (and 4D) screens make a big difference to the profit margin. So, too, does the mere fact that the film is released digitally. Not so long ago, all prints were delivered to cinemas as rolls of film in large cans, at a cost of about $1500 each. Now they are delivered on hard drives at a cost of about $150 each. What that means is that the studios can now ship out a lot more prints at a lower cost than ever before, and maximise their advertising and marketing spend around the opening couple of weeks of a film's life (this is why the "opening weekend" figures have become so crucial in Hollywood). Iron Man 3 went out last Thursday in 4253 US cinemas, the 14th widest release in history. Avatar opened in 2009 in 3452 cinemas. Titanic, the second-highest grosser of all time, opened in just 2674 cinemas in 1997. The modern model is to hit them hard and fast, to take the money and run. The Australian per-screen average dropped 56 per cent from week one to week two. It doesn't matter, though. From here, it's all just cream. Actions speak louder than words It's a misconception that comic-book movies have simple plots. They don't. Iron Man 3 is ridiculously complicated in some respects, with multiple storylines and a host of characters with rich back stories and dubious motivations. In the weekday screening I attended - in a near-empty cinema - the dialogue was turned down so low I had to strain to hear it. And yet, I still knew what was going on - because the film is designed to carry you along in its jet stream even if you don't catch every little nuance. Sure, there's plenty of enjoyment to be had in the verbal gags, sight gags, knowing winks to other Marvel entities. But if you miss them you'll still walk away feeling you've had a complete experience. That's critical because it means the film has a chance to resonate in territories where English is not the first language and the Marvel universe is not a proven commodity. Hello, China, we're talking about you - a record $21.5 million opening day, an impressive $63.5 million opening week. So they had to shoot a few new scenes for local audiences? Big deal. Well worth it to get a crack at a market that is already No. 2 in the world and tipped to become No. It's fun None of the above should detract from the fact that Iron Man 3 is actually pretty good. There's certainly more to cinema than wisecracks, incendiary set pieces and cartoonish clashes between good and evil - or there should be, anyway - but within the narrow parameters of the BSU film this is a pretty fine example. If you want to convince Hollywood to make a different kind of movie, my advice is stay away from Iron Man. But something tells me that's one battle that has been well and truly lost already. twitter: @karlkwin