May Day was a major payday for Disney and "Iron Man 3." The Marvel superhero sequel took in $65 million on Wednesday, a major holiday in many foreign countries, and raised its international total to $307 million.
"Iron Man 3" is about to pass the $312 million total of "Iron Man 2" soon and has already topped "Iron Man" ($267 million), "Thor" ($268 million) and "Captain America" ($192 million).
Wednesday's massive haul includes the estimated $21.5 million opening in China, biggest ever in that country. The film opened on National Labor Day to post the highest opening day and single day in industry history there.
Also read: 'Iron Man 3' $21M Box-Office Debut Is China's Biggest Ever
"Iron Man 3" also opened in Germany, South Africa and Thailand on Wednesday. The debuts in the latter two were the biggest single days ever in those markets.
Korea, where the film opened last week, has run up the biggest box office for "Iron Man 3" with $27.6 million, with Mexico and the U.K. just behind with $26.8 million each.
International grosses will be critical if "Iron Man 3" is to reach $1 billion in worldwide grosses. It's clear foreign audiences are seeing it as a sequel to last summer's Marvel superhero saga "The Avengers." That movie, which also featured Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, brought in $888 million internationally on its way to a $1.5 billion worldwide total.
"Iron Man 3," which debuts in the United States on Friday, began its foreign rollout a week ago and posting a $195 million first weekend, bigger than "The Avengers."