He also got paid for producing the film. as did his wife. It was a vanity project through and through. The only reason it wasn't an actual "indie" is because RDJ has/had the clout (and name recognition) to get actual studio support behind his vanity projects. That must be nice.

Robert Downey Jr is a insanely rich and powerful man. He has the privilege of making a lot of choices in his life. Good for him. For example, it was his choice to refer to a large part of his own industry this way:

Yes. Thank you for explaining basic logic to me. I had no idea…

Looking at the age demographics of the people that actually paid to see The Judge in theaters, I'm guessing most of them were there for Robert Duvall.

Someone is butthurt. His name is Robert Downey Jr.

Yes. That's the ticket. Won't someone leave Robert Downey, Jr. alone?

“I think it’s mediocre."

Yes, but $40 million of that went to pay RDJ's salary.

"Because they’re exhausting, and sometimes they suck, and then you just go, ‘What was I thinking?’”

Katya was clearly the winner of this episode. Hands down. If you watched this weeks "Untucked" you'll see that Katya was even funnier backstage. Something about that dress and wig really got her going. Divine.

John Waters + Drag Race= Television Heaven

Good stuff. At least in the Nolanverse, the plot holes made sense in terms of theme and metaphor, FWIW.

Yes. Yes he did. Link to an outside site with the interview/quote:

I see pretty much any comic book movie released in theaters, so I'm in for the long haul.

He nails it. At this point his exhaustion and cynicism is just part of the character. (Aw man, now I'm nostalgic for the good old days of the first Iron Man movie. Remember when you could go see one of this movies without a sinking feeling of deja vu?)

"Cigarettes in space?"

Yeah, exactly. And then the mid-credit stinger introducing the wonder twins completely subverts the action of the entire movie as if to say, "Hey look, now we have mutants (er, miracles) in this world so all of that stuff you were fighting over is of zero significance. Reset the stakes. Back to square one in time for…

Sure. The MCU has been promising us consequences and sacrifices since the first film. The payoff always seems to be just one more movie away… I was along for the ride at first, but now it's obvious that the Disney-formula is controlling the story. In other words, the surge is working!

I'm looking forward to Ironic Man 4: Massive Eye Roll

RDJ FTW