Marvel Studios
On December 31, 2009, The Walt Disney Company purchased Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion. Both Marvel and Disney have stated that the merger would not affect any preexisting deals with other film studios for the time being, although Disney said they would consider distributing future Marvel projects with their own studios once the current deals expired. On October 18, 2010, Disney bought the distribution rights for The Avengers and Iron Man 3 from Paramount Pictures.