Marvel Studios has pre-sold the cable television rights to its first five films to the FX cable network.  Iron Man, which is to be released on May 2nd, and The Incredible Hulk, which debuts on June 13th, will be the first two Marvel films on FX to be followed by the as yet unannounced next three Marvel Studios' projects.  According to Variety the deal commits FX to pay 11% of the total domestic box office gross of each film (capped at $200 million) and could be worth as much as $110 million to Marvel (if all five films earn over $200 million).  Since it was made well before the first Marvel Studios' film was shown in a theater, the agreement with FX represents what Marvel Studios' David Maisel called "a real vote of confidence not only for Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk, but for the overall launch of the new Marvel studios."

This deal demonstrates why Marvel took the leap from licensing its characters to Hollywood studios to producing films on its own.  Although the "pay TV" rights to the new Marvel films are handled by the studios doing the films' theatrical distribution (Paramount for Iron Man and the 3 unannounced films and Universal for the Hulk) and thus have to be shared between Marvel Studios and the distributors, Marvel doesn't have to divvy up the revenues generated by cable and broadcast deals (or DVD sales).

Marvel Studios' timing was perfect since increasing competition among cable networks has led to an enormous increase in the number of movie pre-buys.  Warner Bros. has already sold the cable rights to Speed Racer, Get Smart, and The Dark Knight to its "sister" Time Warner companies TBS and TNT, while the USA network has acquired Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.  The FX network, which has assembled the largest library of comic book-based films on cable including the three X-Men films, Spider-Man 2+3, the two FF films, Ghost Rider, Superman Returns and Batman Begins, will host superhero movie marathons on the release dates of Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, thus providing Marvel with the perfect platform for some last-minute marketing.