At the Hollywood premiere of Iron Man, Viacom/CBS Executive Chairman Sumner Redstone and Paramount Pictures CEO Brad Grey told Entertainment Tonight that if the movie does as well as expected, Paramount will greenlight a sequel for the same week in 2010. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader already holds claim to the “first weekend of the summer” (May 7, 2010), but Iron Man 2 could easily open a week earlier on Friday, April 30th 2010 if all goes well.

Also Downey’s trainer, Brad Bose, told [1] IESB that he starts training with Downey just after this final premiere in Los Angeles, stating that he will have Downey ready to wear the suit again in just 5 months. Sounds to me like the contracts are all but signed, and everyone is ready to go.

The studio is telling people they would be happy with anything higher than $70 million. /Film Box Office Analyst Steve Mason is [2] predicting $102 million for Thursday through Sunday. So unless something goes terribly wrong at the box office this weekend, expect Iron Man 2 to go into production in early 2009.