DISNEY IN MARVEL-OUS DEAL WITH PARAMOUNT

The Walt Disney Co. clearly wants to put its imprimatur on its Marvel superhero blockbusters as soon as possible. The company, which bought Marvel Entertainment last year for $4 billion, has signed a deal with Paramount in which it would take over marketing and distribution of The Avengers and Iron Man 3, in return for a minimum guarantee of $115 million against a percentage of the gross. While on its face, the deal would appear to benefit Paramount more than Disney, analysts pointed out that more than the movie business is at stake in the deal, since Disney will now be able to exploit the superhero characters in the two movies across its entire businesses, from television to toys to theme parks.