The Iron Man success story continues; a worldwide gross of $1.0008 billion in just under a month has seen Iron Man three move in to the top 20 all-time grossing films.

The superhero sequel has also become the second highest-grossing comic book film of all time, overtaking The Dark Knight, which grabbed $1.004bn in 2008. Aside from the classic markets: America and The U.K, the adventures of Tony Stark have been immensely popular in the South Korea, Mexico and Russia. In Britain, its $76.3m haul places it 22nd on the all-time list, in America, it’s made $311,404,000; add to that the $698,900,000 from the foreign market, and you’ve got an incredibly impressive overall gross. With Star Trek Into Darkness opening yesterday (Friday 17th) Iron Man 3 is facing stiffer competition — and was narrowly out-grossed by The Great Gatsby on Wednesday according to Deadline, $3.9 million to $3.85. The Avengers, with $1.512B is the comic book movie to beat, though; it’s the third highest-grossing movie of all time and will take some toppling.

Iron Man 3 deserves its place in the upper echelons of movie grossers; the people behind it have expertly carved out a cinematic reimaging of the comic book legend, culminating in three solid films. It stands alongside the Dark Knight trilogy as one of the reinventions of the genre, and will be remembered for years and years to come as a result of that.

Robert Downey Jr.Robert Downey Jr. isn't doing himself any favours with that sunglasses + goatee combo