“Iron Man” stayed golden in its third frame at the foreign box office with $25.6 million at more than 5,000 playdates, while “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian” debuted powerfully with $20.7 million at 2,000 in a dozen markets.

As “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” waits in the wings, international multiplexes also saw solid overall biz from “What Happens in Vegas,” which continued to grab counterprogramming coin with $20 million at 4,200, declining only 20% in its soph sesh. But “Speed Racer” remained an underperfomer, falling 44% from its subpar launch to $7 million at 4,700.

With three films topping $20 million, the overseas market appears primed to see “Crystal Skull” deliver monstrous offshore grosses this weekend — possibly even challenging the $251 million launch record set a year ago by “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.”

The success of “Iron Man” — handled by Par in most overseas territories — has already underlined the appetite for mega-franchise action fare in foreign markets. It’s become the year’s top Hollywood title with $206 million internationally and $428 million worldwide.

“Iron Man” posted impressive holdover biz with a decline of only 34% from its second frame. In the U.K., cooler temps helped as grosses slipped just 5% to $3.7 million, lifting the Brit cume past $25 million. Australian biz also held well, off 30% to $2.2 million, while South Korea declined 56% to $2 million for a $21.9 million cume.

In “Tropic Thunder,” one of three summer films featuring Robert Downey Jr., the actor appears on screen as a black man.Downey Jr. plays overly committed actor Kirk Lazarus, a white man cast to play a black soldier in a satire of the performing profession. The film also stars Jack Black and Ben Stiller, who co-wrote, directed and produced it.

“If it’s done right, it could be the type of role you called Peter Sellers to do 35 years ago,” Downey told Entertainment Weekly magazine. “If you don’t do it right, we’re going to hell.”

Stiller said he was “trying to push it as far as you can within reality,” with the intent of satirizing over-the-top actors, not African-Americans.

“I had no idea how people would respond to it,” Stiller told the magazine. But at a recent screening, black viewers liked the film, he said.

Downey explained that he kept the character from becoming a caricature because he “dove in with both feet.”

“If I didn’t feel it was morally sound,” he said, “or that it would be easily misinterpreted that I’m just C. Thomas Howell in (”Soul Man”), I would’ve stayed home.”

Paramount is set to release “Tropic Thunder” Aug. 15.