Iron Man kostede $140 millioner alene at producere. Det ansås som værende ret så dyrt, og da der dengang ikke var noget der hed MCU, så kunne Marvel og Paramount ikke trække på kontinuitet som drivkraft.
Faktisk har skuespiller Robert Downey Jr. slået fast overfor ComicBook, at Paramount forventede at filmen ville floppe totalt, det var de i hvert fald indstillede på:
"Well, I mean, first of all, because not too many people were thinking that Iron Man was even going to have an opening weekend or do much of anything, so we were a little bit left alone. I find out more every day about how that thing was financed, it was basically ready to be written off if it tanked. And so anyway, it was the perfect thing where there were not a lot of creatively aggressive eyes on us. And by the time they gave it to us, it was like united artists, like the lunatics took over the asylum. And I remember Jeff Bridges, too, he was like, 'Man, we're doing a $200 million independent movie, man.' And there was just that sense that, of course, it was much more organized."
Det skulle vise sig at Iron Man grundlagde MCU som vi kender det, og filmen selv hentede næsten $600 millioner.