Avengers Hits $1 Billion Mark and is Confirmed for Sequel

It seems Disney’s luck has finally turned around. After the difficult blow of John Carter’s failure (losing the company a staggering $200 million), Marvel’s The Avengers (known to UK readers as Avengers Assemble) has raked in $1 billion worldwide in just three weeks, Flicks and Bits reports. The smash-hit recently made history also by taking in the highest ever sales for an opening weekend.
Disney Chairman and CEO Bob Iger said:

“We’re obviously thrilled with the global success of The Avengers, it’s a fantastic movie and an extraordinary franchise that will continue with more great stories and compelling characters for years to come.”

Mark Ruffalo has signed on for 6 more Marvel films (hinting at more Hulk movies). Iron Man 3, Thor 2 and Captain America 2 are all in the works. And now, the super-team has been confirmed (rather inevitably) for an upcoming sequel. With The Amazing Spider-Man coming up and a X-Men: First Class sequel in the works, fans around the world are begging for their inclusion in the Avengers team. However, as Coventry Telegraph reports, since Fox holds the rights to X-Men and Fantastic Four works and Sony holds the rights to Spider-Man, it is unlikely that we will ever see them meet together.

When asked if Disney were considering buying back the rights to the Marvel characters, Bob Iger said:

“Marvel’s got a slew of great characters to mine, and we’ll continue to do that, they’ve got development in the works for a number of unnamed characters that are going to give Marvel the ability to make numerous films over the years ahead, so I don’t think you’ll see necessarily a need to buy back characters or all that much opportunity.”

The question on everybody’s lips as the project begins will be which Marvel characters will be added to the superhero roster? Who would make a great addition to the Avengers team? Let us know in the comments below, or send a tweet: @PushStartMedia

News sources – Flicks and Bits, Coventry Telegraph