With Iron Man recording the 2nd best non-sequel opening ever (second only to Spider-Man, which is also a Marvel property), the ball is now in Marvel’s court.
The comics-publisher turned film-studio announced its first quarter earnings today, along with additional news about their upcoming film slate.
If you missed out predictions about this announcement, click here.
Then, continue on after the cut for the details of Iron Man 2, Thor and THE AVENGERS SUMMER!
Sadly, at this early hour, all we have are the Financial report. Happily, that report does include movie announcements:
Marvel today updated its feature film slate strategy and plans for the next three years, locking in key release windows for its character franchises. In order to focus its attention on maximizing the success of an Iron Man sequel and the launch of Thor in the summer of 2010 and because Marvel believes that the summer is the optimal time to launch a new property, the Company will not release a self produced film in 2009. Marvel plans to launch its 2010 film slate with the release of the sequel, Iron Man 2, on April 30, 2010, followed by the launch of Thor on June 4, 2010. Additionally, Marvel is planting its feature film stakes for summer 2011 with an Avengers-themed summer – a two-picture project which will debut on May 6, 2011 with The First Avenger: Captain America (working title), followed by The Avengers in July 2011.
Ok, let’s pat ourselves on the back here.
Iron Man 2: totally called it. We even knew the date, although it looks like they have moved it back a weekend so as not to fuck with Chronicles of Narnia 3.
Thor: Sort of called it. We know that a script exists and that it’s supposed to be pretty good, but we couldn’t count out Ant-Man (which we heard a lot of the same rumors about).
AVENGERS SUMMER!
Fuck yes! A Captain America origin story, immediately followed by a full on Avengers story? That’s a way to think outside the box and solve the problem of Captain America’s poor international tracking!
See Captain America, non-Americans, because The Avengers (made up, at least, of Cap, Hulk, Iron Man and Thor) are going to kick your ass two-months later!
