Corona | Coming Attractions

Being in the superhero movie biz is good these days for Marvel Entertainment. The parent company of Marvel Studios and Marvel Comics is awash with green and that's not just because they own the Incredible Hulk.

In the first quarter of the year for Marvel the company netted $90 million dollars in revenue, the majority of which came from the release of Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk on DVD. That's the dividend that comes when you pay to finance the movie and it becomes a hit. Sure, Paramount Pictures and Universal Pictures both made decent cash on the two films, with Paramount benefitting more thanks to Iron Man's $300 million dollar box office draw, but the real change comes when you own the copyright -- and that's precisely what Marvel does with these pictures.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine will likely add some more coin to Marvel's bank account when it gets released to DVD later in the year but that arrangement between 20th Century Fox and Marvel isn't as lucrative for the comic book company as their one for Iron Man. If Iron Man 2 performs similarly to the first film then it will be another payday for Marvel next year again. After that, the live-action Avengers, Thor and Captain America movies could continue Marvel's hot streak.

Licensing revenues fell 4% so there weren't as many people buying the Iron Man and Hulk tie-ins as the accountants had hopes for, but when you factor in the world recession the lower-than-expected return is just a minor blip.