Hoping to meet last year’s record-breaking summer, the 2010 season gets underway Friday with the first of the May tentpoles, Paramount’s highly anticipated Iron Man 2.

The first of several summer sequels, the Marvel Comics superhero takes off on 4,000 screens with Robert Downey, Jr. again in the titular role — with Mickey Rourke joining as arch rival Ivan Vanko

Despite unfavorable early reviews, the sequel stands to best the $98 million North American opening weekend of the 2008 original. Iron Man 2 has already opened overseas and by Thursday has grossed $100 million.

The actioner gets competition next week from Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood, starring Russell Crowe, followed by DreamWorks moneymaker Shrek Forever After on May 21. Other sequels on the summer slate include Sex and the City 2, Toy Story 3, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse and The Karate Kid remake with Jaden Smith taking kung fu lessons from Jackie Chan.

Also opening Friday:

• The French-made documentary Babies, which co-opened Toronto’s Hot Docs film festival last week, bows on two screens in Toronto and three in Montreal through Alliance, while Focus Features is sending the film to roughly 500 theaters stateside. It follows a group of infants in Japan, Namibia, Mongolia and the U.S. through the first year of their lives.

• Mongrel Media has the doc Exit Through the Gift Shop, from well-known British graffiti artist Banksy, playing in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. It is narrated by Welsh actor Rhys Ifans.

• Mongrel also has the comedy Please Give, featuring Catherine Keener, Oliver Platt and Amanda Peet, about a wealthy New York couple’s dysfunctional relationships, playing in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal.