Marvel Studios' "Iron Man 3" debuted in U.S. theaters at midnight, bringing in a $15.6 million box office take according to Deadline. While the midnight total isn't record-breaking (for frame of reference, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2" had $43.5 million over its midnight showings, while "The Avengers" did $18.7 million), analysts estimate the weekend box office total for "Iron Man 3" to be between $165 million and $180 million in North America.

Internationally, "Iron Man 3" continues to perform well, already outperforming the international totals for "Captain America: The First Avenger," "Iron Man" and "Thor." In China, the opening day total surpassed "The Avengers" entire opening weekend of $18 million. Deadline further reports that "Iron Man 3" comprises 86% of weekly sales for Fandango and 91% for MovieTickets, which has already sold out 750 of its screenings for the weekend.

While the estimated $180 million opening weekend is definitely high, it would still fall short of "The Avengers," which ended its debut weekend at $207 million.

"Iron Man 3" is in theaters now.