Robert Downey Jr. release year for his role in "Tropic Thunder". The first role Downey accepted after "Iron Man" was the title character in Guy Ritchie's "Sherlock Holmes". Warner Bros. released it on December 25, 2009. The film set several box office records in the United States for a Christmas Day release, beating the previous record holder, 2008's "Marley & Me", by nearly $10M, and finished second to "Avatar" in a record-setting Christmas weekend box office. "Sherlock Holmes" ended up being the 8th highest-grossing film of 2009. When Downey won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
Robert Downey Jr. of screenwriter Shane Black. After "Gothika", Downey was cast in a number of leading and supporting roles, including well-received work in a number of semi-independent films: "A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints", "Good Night, and Good Luck", Richard Linklater's dystopian, rotoscoped "A Scanner Darkly" (in which Downey plays the role of a drug addict), and Steven Shainberg's fictional biographical film of Diane Arbus, "Fur", where Downey's character represented the two biggest influences on Arbus's professional life, Lisette Model and Marvin Israel. Downey also received great notice for his roles in more mainstream fare such as "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" and