Apple Founder Steve Jobs Totally Hated Iron Man: "It Sucked"
Not everyone was a fan of Iron Man 2 but apparently, there was one person who hated it the most. And the person was no one else than Steve Jobs, once considered to be the biggest celebrity to inspire the character.
In 2010 when Iron Man 2 was out Jobs also had other reasons to worry about the movie. The release took place less than a year from the date Disney purchased Marvel Entertainment in a giant $4.24 billion deal.
And ever since Disney bought Pixar, the Apple Co-founder has been one of the biggest shareholders of the company.
Disney CEO Bob Iger recalls in his 2019 memoir, The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company, that after watching the movie, Steve Jobs had gone out of his way to call him and tell him how much he had disliked it.
"When Iron Man 2 came out, Steve took his son to see it and called me the next day," Iger wrote. "I took Reed to see Iron Man 2 last night,' he said. 'It sucked."
Iger had to arrange a personal meeting with Jobs and hear his arguments. He ended up telling Jobs that he wasn't "the intended audience" for the film.
Probably one of the reasons Jobs felt so concerned about the film was not the financial success. Especially as the film ended up with a solid $623 million gross worldwide. And maybe he did not even express his creative concerns. It was widely considered in 2010's that Steve Jobs was the main inspiration for Tony Stark. And it may be that Jobs saw Tony Stark as a parody of himself and hated it.
If so, he shouldn't be that upset. In an interview with New York Magazine, Iron Man writer Mark Fergus explained that even if Steve Jobs was on the list of inspirational characters for Tony Stark, the only celebrity who really had all of the characteristics of Iron Man was Elon Mask. This plays very well with Mask's cameo in the movie — long before the crowds followed his every twit.
"[Musk], Trump, and maybe a little Steve Jobs. Trump was fun before he became president — he was actually kind of a goofy celebrity. Steve Jobs was always serious and angry; he never quite had that gift of the bullshit, the working for the crowd that Musk has a real natural talent for. Musk took the brilliance of Jobs with the showmanship of Trump. He was the only one who had the fun factor and the celebrity vibe and actual business substance."