Disney to Distribute 'Iron Man 3', Sets Release Date

Back in August of last year, the deal heard 'round the comic world occurred when The Walt Disney Company paid $4 billion to acquire Marvel Comics.  That deal brought all things Marvel, including its newly created Marvel Studio arm, to the Magic Kingdom.

The details of the acquisition didn't shake up any plans for upcoming Marvel releases as all character rights at other studios would remain in place and Paramount would still have distribution rights to the films leading up to and including the planned Avengers film.  Well a few details in the deal are changing today as Disney plans to spend an addition $115 million to snag the worldwide distribution rights of The Avengers and the future third installment of the Iron Man franchise away from Paramount.

Minutes after that announcement, more news from Disney came through the wire that they had already set a release date for Iron Man 3:  May 3, 2013.  And the Marvel train keeps a rollin'.

It doesn't surprise me that Disney is making this move now.  In the original deal, everything that came after The Avengers would be theirs to distribute.  But why wouldn't they want a piece of the epic team-up pie?  That's like ordering a pizza on your way home from work and letting your roommate demolish it before you get home (that happens, right?).

Two things here, however, do surprise me.  First being that Paramount let the rights to The Avengers and Iron Man 3 go for that price.  Granted, Disney will have to pay for the marketing and distribution for each film in addition to the lump sum they just payed.  But I mean come on, The Avengers is going to make like a bajillion dollars on its own.  I mean you've been putting up with all the headaches caused by Marvel's team-up plan and you're backing out as it's all about to pay off?  At least hold out for a little more coin.

Which brings me to the second surprise in that Disney is planning another Iron Man sequel so soon.  I get that it's almost three years out, but it'll only be a year after The Avengers is released and right now all hands are on deck of The Avengers.  So really, who knows when the creatives will get around to working on the new Iron Man and the last thing audiences need is another rushed sequel the studio crams full of storylines to set up additional Marvel films.

Initially I loved Marvel's plan to link their films, but now I'm as skeptical as can be.  The only product we've seen of this initiative had more flaws than bright spots, and it seems like they're treating every other upcoming film like just that: a product.  As 2013 starts sneaking up, we can only hope the studio learned its lesson from the mistakes made on the first Iron Man sequel.  We'll have a better idea of what to expect from Marvel/Disney going forward next summer as both Thor and Captain America hit theaters.

Comments

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Financially this actually makes since for Paramount because they were only getting 8% or so for distributing the flicks and were required to help finance the marketing campaigns. So unless The Avengers and Iron Man 3 both make way more than the first two Iron Man films did Paramount should come out ahead on this deal.