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Iron Man 3 is heading into the weekend after shattering the $1 billion global mark. The latest entry in the Iron Man franchise is already the #2 superhero film of all time, behind The Avengers. It is the 11th highest grossing film of all time in the overseas marketplace and occupies the 16th spot on the historical grosses list.

It is impossible to know just how much of the $104 million China gross came from specific production aspects tailored for Chinese audiences, but Iron Man 3's cultural hybrid approach might become as enticing for future projects as the prospect of a Chinese co-production.

The only significant obstacle in Iron Man 3's path is the global expansion of Star Trek Into Darkness. The sci-fi sequel had mixed results after its release in seven markets last weekend. It dominated the U.K.'s box office, grossing nearly half of its weekend $37.1 million from the United Kingdom's loyal fans. The J.J. Abrams reboot project sank in Mexico, out-grossed by Iron Man 3 over Mother's Day weekend. Star Trek Into Darkness heads into the weekend opening in 15 new markets with a $60.5 million global total.

Big numbers for the Star Trek expansion can come from Russia, where Iron Man 3 is heading into its third weekend after already grossing $40.2 million. Paramount opted for a strategic scaled release with Star Trek Into Darkness, releasing the film in Trekkie strongholds before a summer-long overseas expansion. Paramount's strategy sacrifices the potential for the sustained buzz of a global day-and-date release, but allows it to pick-and-choose territories in order to avoid competition from other tentpoles in this packed summer season.

The Great Gatsby will hope to give Iron Man 3 and Star Trek Into Darkness a run for their money, aiming for an overseas run that reflects the adaptation's strong North American opening weekend. The title isn't a household name abroad, so the film will be relying on Leonardo DiCaprio's star-power and Baz Luhrmann's alluring visual style to draw in viewers. The film's performance in the U.K., France, Germany, South Korea, Italy, Russia, and Spain this weekend is an all-or-nothing bet for the top global markets.

The Croods has been a runaway success story in the overseas market over the last two months. The animated film has grossed $362 million overseas despite direct competition from Oz: The Great and Powerful. The Croods conquered Oz, beating it by over $95 million in the overseas market.

The Croods has held well in top ten lists around the world but will likely get bumped off by this week's overseas release of Epic. Epic will hope to tap into the popularity of the animated market along with the recent fairytale adventure trend. Fairytale adaptations have proved successful at the overseas box office over the past two years. The tone of Epic, however, is aimed at a younger demographic than the more universal appeal of films like Snow White and The Huntsman, Jack the Giant Slayer, and Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters.

Epic will be released in 17 overseas markets this weekend, with a specific focus on Latin America, where animated films have a reputation of faring especially well. Epic might have a better shot at toping the box office in Mexico and Brazil, where Iron Man 3's established success and the lack of any other new family-oriented films in the market present an interesting opportunity for the right film to take the top spot away from the billion-dollar superhero movie.

Follow Daniel Loria and BoxOffice on Twitter for more news on the global box office. 

CYPRESS, Calif. -- Light Iron, a leading postproduction house based in Los Angeles, has expanded its use of Christie Solaria® Series digital cinema projectors offering rich, saturated color, high brightness and sharp, 4K resolution to its ever growing clientele.

"We've used other manufacturer's 4K projectors when 4K projectors first hit the streets, but the fact to the matter is it's more important to be the best at something than the first. And the best 4K solution is exactly what Christie brings to the market. With its reliable and proven name, it was an easy decision to make Christie the standard for our screening rooms in both Los Angeles and New York City, with Christie Solaria 2K and 4K projectors in operation at both locations, including a Christie Solaria CP4230, which will be highlighted at the official unveiling of our new facility in New York City tonight," said Michael Cioni, CEO, Light Iron.

"Christie's all-in-one design allows us to view 4K content without an external cinema server. This allows us to stream uncompressed 4K content from our DI color systems directly to Christie projectors in our LA and New York facilities. This makes the integration of 4K into our technical pipeline nearly identical to our 2K pipeline, and that's one of the reasons it's the best projection solution on the market," added Cioni.

Christie DLP Cinema® Projectors a Hit with Postproduction Houses
"Our product flexibility is gaining us a lot of converts in the postproduction space. One of our key differentiators here is that the user doesn't have to swap input cards when switching between uncompressed and packaged cinema content, as two slots are standard on the Solaria 4K projectors," said Don Shaw, senior director, Product Management with Christie's Entertainment Solutions group. "And as one of these connections is a professional-grade quad 3G-SDI connect, Christie can ensure that post facilities have a robust and convenient digital interface for flawless viewing of 4K digital cinema or alternative content."

After four years in Los Angeles, Light Iron has expanded into New York to help serve the postproduction community there. A pioneer in 4K postproduction projection, Light Iron hopes to demonstrate to the NYC cinema and postproduction community the solid workflows that 4K enables and how easy, cost-effective and quick it is to implement a 4K workflow as an alternative to 2K workflows, which don't facilitate 4K digital content as well. Light Iron's New York screening room has a 35-foot throw and a Microperf screen 16 feet wide by 9 feet. The 4K content is played out of a Quantel Pablo Rio with AJA Corvid Ultra video card, while 4K content is fed via 4 by 3G-SDI. The facility at 580 Broadway will be unveiled to a broad cross-section of the industry at its grand opening tonight.

"Ours is the only post facility designed for 4K from the ground up. While working with 4K files is becoming common, viewing pixel-for-pixel results is not. The Christie CP4230 expands Light Iron's creative freedom by enabling real-time 4K monitoring in a calibrated DCI space. Since that's where the cinema is headed, that's where Light Iron needs to be. There's really no one else on either coast that feels as strongly about this as we do," said Cioni.

NORTHRIDGE, California -- HARMAN's JBL Professional today announced that it is the Official Speaker Provider for The American Pavilion at the 66th Cannes Film Festival, which takes place May 15-26 in Cannes, France. The American Pavilion is the center of activity at the Cannes International Film Festival for the American film community, offering membership for professionals, provocative and insightful programming, immersive student programs, the Emerging Filmmaker Showcase and more.

JBL is providing four CBT 70J-1 column loudspeakers for The American Pavilion, which is located within the International Village. Because of the CBT 70J-1's studio-grade drivers and JBL's exclusive CBT pattern control, the loudspeakers provide the American Pavilion with superb sonic fidelity and even coverage throughout the space. The system includes four JBL CBT 70J-1 column loudspeakers instead of the 20 distributed loudspeakers that had previously been considered.

The CBT's "Asymmetrical Progressive Gradient Coverage" sends more sound to the far area of the listening space than to the close areas. This allows sufficient sound to reach the far listeners without overwhelming listeners that are positioned closer to the loudspeakers.

The very wide 150-degree horizontal coverage allows more area in the pavilion to be covered from fewer loudspeaker locations and to ensure that off-axis listeners still hear the same quality of sound as on-axis listeners. Two of the speakers are located at the edge of the tent area, allowing them to also cover the listeners on the deck, who were not covered in previous years. In addition, the low-profile design of the CBT Series provides the pavilion with world-class sound while maintaining a visually discreet appearance.

With the ability to cover the area with fewer speakers, the entire system is driven from a single powered mixer, as opposed to the complexity of a rack system. With the power available from the existing powered mixer, each speaker is powered with 125 Watts.

"We are honored to be named as the Official Speaker Provider for The American Pavilion at Cannes," said Brian Divine, Director of Marketing, JBL Professional. "JBL has a storied history in cinema, and this year attendees at The American Pavilion can look forward to enjoying the powerful, immersive and nuanced sound that JBL is known for."

"We are thrilled to have the cutting-edge technology that JBL Professional brings to the table, which will give our members a sound experience beyond compare for all our programming this year," said Julie Sisk, Founder of The American Pavilion at Cannes.