I’ve updated with more HQs of Promotional Stills and Shoots from The Avengers.

Gallery links:
The Avengers > Promotional Stills
The Avengers > Promotionals

The record-shattering opening success of The Avengers,which sold more than $200 million in theater tickets in the United States and did about $640 million in business worldwide during opening weekend, is further evidence of an amazing fact: Robert Downey, Jr. not only rules Hollywood, but he’s staged an even more impressive turnaround than General Motors.

Consider this: Since 2008, nine movies featuring the 47-year-old actor have grossed more than $1.5 billion in the U.S. alone, and his name on the marquee is perhaps the surest guarantee of a box-office smash. That’s an astonishing run, especially because it wasn’t that long ago — 2001, to be precise — that Downey seemed destined to become fodder for those “Whatever Happened To…?” articles in the supermarket tabloids. His drug addiction and erratic behavior earned him a prison stay and led producer David E. Kelley to fire him from what seemed like his last chance for resurrecting his career, a supporting role in the hit TV series Ally McBeal. Downey sank so low that despite his enormous talent, he was virtually unemployable.

But that was then. Today, if Robert Downey, Jr. was a company, he might be leading the Dow Jones index. It’s not just that he revived his career; he’s actually far bigger than he was at the apex of his youthful climb to stardom 20 years ago, when he earned an Oscar nomination for best actor in the critically acclaimed box office flop Chaplin. That makes Downey’s self-reinvention a great case study for anyone who’s attempting a midlife second act — whether you’re an entrepreneur starting a new business, or someone who is struggling at 40 or beyond to overcome past mistakes.

Here are five Downey-esque lessons that can help you mount your own comeback.

1. Concentrate on getting ahead one step at a time. Whether you need to vanquish some inner demons or escape from a bad stretch in your life, as Downey endured in the late 1990s and early 2000s, or you’re simply trying to find a new passion in life, you’re more likely to get there through patient plodding rather than big, sweeping dramatic gestures. Remember that Downey’s comeback, from rock-bottom to superstar, took a good seven years of struggle, in which he had to work long and hard to prove his commitment to sobriety and regain his credibility as a professional. As he explains in this Esquire interview, “I found my way out of the woods by a subtler and subtler trail of bread crumbs.”

2. Don’t be too proud to accept help. Even after Downey seemed to have his drug addiction in check, producers were reluctant to hire him because insurance companies didn’t like the odds that he would flake out and not finish a movie. That’s when Mel Gibson, an actor who’s had a troubled life lately but was flying high in 2003, stepped in. Gibson, who had co-starred with Downey in the 1990 movie Air America, offered to put up Downey’s insurance bond, enabling him to get the lead role in the 2003 movie The Singing Detective. Downey not only did his work as promised but also turned in an excellent performance — proving to Hollywood that he still had the chops to be a star. If he had been too proud to accept Gibson’s generosity, who knows what would have happened to him?

3. Believe that in the end, your talent will enable people to overlook your past mistakes. The tipping point of Downey’s career comeback was Iron Man, the 2008 blockbuster that firmly established him as a marquee attraction. But in many ways, Downey was an unlikely choice for the role of a costumed superhero, even one whose alter-ego was playboy industrialist Tony Stark. Not only was he a recovering addict with a lurid dark side, but as an actor, he’d spent much of his career playing off-center, irony-drenched supporting roles. But as director Jon Favreau explains in this GQ article, Downey’s acting skills made him overlook those negatives, and the director worked hard to persuade Marvel Comics — which owned the character and was dead-set against Downey — that he was the man for the part. “Here was this force of nature, who I think was living with this frustration that he wasn’t able to really show what he was great at, because nobody was willing to take that leap and say, ‘This guy could carry my movie.’ Nobody was willing to jump in the pool. I was.”

4. It’s never too late to develop self-discipline. As an addict, Downey was in such despair about his inability to stay away from drugs that he actually told a judge in 1999 that “It’s like I’ve got a shotgun in my mouth, with my finger on the trigger, and I like the taste of the gun metal,” according to this ABC News story from that period. Nevertheless, the actor has managed to stay sober since 2003. As this Men’s Journal article details, he developed the discipline to do that in large part by taking up Wing Chun, a Chinese martial art that emphasizes close-in hand-to-hand combat, and demands intense focus and inner calm. “Wing Chun teaches you what to concentrate on, whether you’re here or out in the world dealing with problems,” Downey explains. “It’s second nature for me now. I don’t even get to the point where there’s a problem.” He’s become so dedicated to the art that he takes lessons three to five times a week, sometimes bringing his instructor to the set when he’s shooting a film.

5. Don’t be afraid to play in an ensemble. It’s easy to think of success — or salvation — as an individual endeavor. But one of the reasons The Avengers — which brings together a pantheon of Marvel costumed icons ranging from Captain America to Spider-Man — has been getting overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics is that Downey resists the temptation to take over the movie. Instead, he has the discipline — and the self-confidence — to hold back and fit into director Joss Whedon’s vision, in which Tony Stark’s snarky running commentary is the glue that holds together the action sequences. As Paste magazine critic Michael Burgin writes: “Thanks in large part to the Downey, Jr.-powered snark-generating machine, the friction between the heroes actually makes sense.” Similarly, if you can find a way to harness your talents and fit into a team of other strivers — even if it means trading riffs rather than being the lead soloist — you may have an even better shot at a successful second act.

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To most, the numbers were shocking: The Avengers opened to a staggering $207.4 million domestic, coupled with $447.4 million overseas in just 12 days of release. When The Hollywood Reporter polled film executives and agents for insight into how Marvel and distributor Disney pulled off a record-breaking weekend, a few clear reasons emerged:

A Five-Year Marketing Plan

Avengers benefited from something no movie had before: It has been marketed to audiences since Iron Man first appeared at Comic-Con in 2007. When that movie became a surprise hit in May 2008 with a $98.6 million opening weekend, Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige quickly unveiled his intention to make four more movies — The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain America — all of which would lead to a giant team-up. Avengers characters like Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) popped up in those movies, and the original Iron Man featured a coda segment devoted to the Avengers initiative. At the time, only comic-book fanboys understood the reference.

“They established character equity that, when combined, makes one and one equal a lot more than two,” notes Disney distribution head Dave Hollis. “This is Feige’s six-year vision to get to a place where people would want to watch these characters assemble.”

Grouping several heroes in one movie also primed a wider swath of moviegoers to show up opening weekend. Not a fan of Chris Evans as Captain America? How about Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man or Chris Hemsworth as Thor?

“Every movie that they released was prepping for this one,” says a top producer. “That’s never been done before, and it was ingenious.”

One Man, One Vision

Marvel operates in a way other studios do not: under the direction of one man, Feige, 39, who shapes its movies in a singular way.

Feige has been Marvel’s lead producer since Iron Man, and the self-professed comics nerd supervises a dedicated crew with consistency. Along with executive producer Louis D’Esposito, Feige hires actors, writers and directors, keeps talent costs relatively low and executes a Marvel vision across all its films in a way traditional studio executives — most of whom juggle diverse slates including romantic comedies and dramas — cannot.

Warner Bros., for instance, has for years wanted to create a universe of films around its DC Comics heroes like Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. But a Justice League movie has stalled, in part because there isn’t a Feige type to keep the elements together. Warners’ recent success with Christopher Nolan’s Batman series led the studio to assign him producing duties on its Superman reboot and a planned relaunch of Batman after his The Dark Knight Rises hits theaters in July. Given Marvel’s success with Avengers, don’t be surprised if Warners — and Nolan — take on a Justice League movie soon.

Fox could be in a similar position with X-Men. The franchise was successfully rebooted with 2011′s X-Men: First Class, and spin-offs for Wolverine and others are in the works. But these movies lack the cohesive universe that contributed to Avengers’ mega-gross.

Hitting Every Quadrant

The Avengers audience breakdown — 50 percent over 25, 40 percent female, 55 percent couples, 24 percent families — shows the film’s wide appeal. That’s a testament to casting. Fortysomething leading men Downey, Renner and Mark Ruffalo signaled to adults that the movie wasn’t just for kids. Hemsworth, 28, and Evans, 30, appealed to young adults, and Samuel L. Jackson, 63, has a huge African-American fan base. At the same time, colorful costumes helped sell the movie to youngsters.

The Laugh Factor

Not many chuckles in The Dark Knight or Harry Potter. But Avengers delivered far more laughs than most summer tentpoles, adding a word-of-mouth benefit typically enjoyed by comedies. Credit goes to director Joss Whedon, 47, known for TV’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, who rewrote Zak Penn’s script with his own idiosyncratic humor, such as referring to Thor’s outfit as “Shakespeare in the park.” Says one observer, “Joss deserves the biggest credit for this movie because that’s his tone up there.”

Don’t Forget 3D

Despite consumer doubts about 3D, Avengers is a big validation of the format and the box-office lift of surcharges. Domestically, roughly 52 percent of the audience watched Avengers in 3D, adding roughly $30 million. Subtract that from $207.4 million and you have $177.4 million, a figure that, while still a record, is closer to the $158 million opening of Dark Knight, which wasn’t in 3D when it was released in 2008. The appetite for 3D is even stronger overseas, particularly in Russia, Brazil and China.

Now, with Iron Man 3 weeks away from production, Marvel has said it will make sequels to Thor and Captain America before it returns to Avengers, though Disney CEO Bob Iger announced May 8 that a sequel is already in the works. Plus, Marvel has a second wave of superheroes in development, including Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Runaways and Ant-Man. If those movies come together, Avengers 2 could feature a virtual town hall of heroes. Is a $300 million opening possible?

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I’ve added many magazine scans featuring The Avengers stuff.

Gallery links:
Scans from 2012 > Skip – April 2012
Scans from 2012 > Ciak N.3 – March 2012
Scans from 2012 > Studio Ciné Live Hors Serie N.19 – 2012
Scans from 2012 > SciFi Now – 2012
Scans from 2012 > Cinema Teaser N.13 – April 2012
Scans from 2012 > Studio Ciné Live N.37 – May 2012
Scans from 2012 > Best Movie – April 2012

LOS ANGELES – Just because Robert Downey Jr. is not suited up as Iron Man doesn’t mean he can’t invoke an emergency Avengers Assemble meeting.

“Thor, Cap, Hulk,” Downey calls out, waving his fellow superheroes in with outstretched arms. “Bring it in.”

With that, Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Chris Evans (Captain America) and Mark Ruffalo (The Hulk) huddle with Downey, their arms locked around each other. It’s the sheer power of this united foursome that has audiences clamoring to see The Avengers, which has already collected a phenomenal $281 million in 39 countries, and which looks to flex serious box-office muscle in the USA as it opens today.

“These guys are known as the core four,” says Marvel Studios president and producer Kevin Feige, the mastermind behind the plan to bring the ultimate superhero collection to the big screen (hatched even before 2008′s Iron Man).

“Getting Thor, Captain America, the Hulk and Iron Man in one room — that’s why we made this movie,” says Feige. “Whether they are fighting each other, or the bad guy, seeing these guys clash was the appeal.”

Sure there are other stars in the film. But as Downey notes while taking a seat at the table, even the specially-made 3-D Avengers glasses are all about fearsome foursome : “You don’t see any Black Widow glasses out there, do ya?”

While the group displays some serious compatibility issues onscreen in The Avengers, no punches are thrown during a spirited superhero roundtable with USA TODAY. In fact, they are downright deliriously happy the day after the star-studded Hollywood premiere, the first time each had seen the movie. It was such a success that the private after-party celebration was a bit too much for Evans, who refuses to take a mystery drink that Hemsworth whispers is “hair of the dog.”

“I have too much in me still from last night,” sighs Evans.

But any post-celabratory fuzziness aside, Team Avengers are game to discuss everything from nightmare outfits endured through the four-month shoot (including Ruffalo’s one-piece Lycra tracking outfit, which impressively transformed him into the Hulk through the magic of computer graphics) to dream additions to the crime-fighting team.
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