It must have been slightly frustrating for Disney. They bought Marvel last year for a huge chunk of cash, and then just had to accept the fact that other studio’s already owned the film rights to several of the comic company’s major characters (Sony has Spider-man, Fox has X-Men), and even those that Marvel still controls, such as Iron Man and Thor, are still tied to a film distribution deal made with Paramount before Disney took over.
It’s basically meant that while Disney has made some money from all these deals, much of the profit from films featuring Marvel characters has been funnelled to rival companies. But no longer! While there’s not a lot they can do about others owning rights to Spidey and X-Men, Disney is paying Paramount $115 million to take back the distribution rights to the Avengers and Iron Man 3, although Paramount will still release Thor and Captain America.
It’s certainly great for Disney, as it finally gives them proper control over the Marvel movies, although Paramount realises they’re losing a cash cow as is really making the House Of Mouse pay through the nose.
This is also the first official mention of Iron Man 3, which many had expected would be the final film in the original Paramount deal, although that hadn’t been confirmed. However Disney has now said that they’re paying to take it off Paramount’s hands, and not only that, but they want it in cinemas on May 3rd, 2013. Well, at least we can now be pretty sure they won’t kill off the character in The Avengers.