When Chief Executive Robert Iger opens a Walt Disney Co. (DIS) post-earnings discussion call to questions late Tuesday, he won’t be asked again to transparent a $4 billion he spent in 2009 to acquire Marvel Entertainment. Or, during least, he shouldn’t be.

The skyscraping $175 million domestic box-office take for a opening weekend of “Iron Man 3” was exceeded usually by a prior Disney-Marvel recover “The Avengers,” that went on to collect $1.5 billion in sheet sales globally.

The latest “Iron Man” installment had already pulled in as most abroad as it is estimated to have grossed in a initial North American weekend in theaters. At a stream trajectory, a latest Robert Downey Jr.-Gwyneth Paltrow save-the-world-through-cool-technology film should strech $1 billion in tellurian box office.

“Iron Man 3” is a final Marvel-inspired film lonesome underneath a pre-existing placement agreement with Viacom Inc.’s (VIAB) Paramount Pictures – an arrangement that Iger wanted to get past urgently adequate that he concluded to compensate Paramount a guaranteed cost in 2010 for “The Avengers” and “Iron Man 3” so Disney could take control of both films’ marketing.

A large payday

Paramount was in line to acquire 8% of worldwide sum for distributing “The Avengers”‘ and 9% for “Iron Man 3.” Disney concluded to buy Paramount out of a understanding for $115 million, that was expel as an allege on those placement fees, with Paramount earning a full 8% and 9% cost if box-office sales surpass threshold levels. If “Iron Man 3” does finish up earning $1 billion, Paramount will get $90 million in total, or $32.5 million some-more than a smallest pledge pragmatic in a buyout deal, by one analyst’s estimate.

Disney is usually too happy to compensate this fee, since it means “Iron Man 3” is a larger-than-anticipated blockbuster and it gives a association a conduct start in embedding Marvel into a placement platform. This also hands Disney full selling control and intensity cost synergies with other releases.

Given a exile success of a “Iron Man” authorization – formed on what was once deliberate a extrinsic comic-book favourite – it’s conspicuous that Iger took a bit of feverishness from Wall Street for a cost he paid for Marvel.

Because “Spider-Man” is spoken-for underneath a long-term understanding with Sony Corp.’s (SNE) Sony Pictures, analysts were uncertain Marvel betrothed adequate bankable characters around that to bottom years-long slates of cinema and their attendant sell tie-ins. “The Avengers” and “Iron Man” have silenced a doubters. On a approach are another “Thor” design and “The Avengers 2,” that will go wholly to Disney.

Farwell to a “boy problem”

The Marvel understanding – along with last year’s $4 billion merger of Star Wars creator Lucasfilm and a continuation of a “Cars” authorization – has also put to rest what used to be deliberate Disney’s “boy problem.” The huge success commencement in a 1990s of Disney’s Princesses line of characters, along with Disney Channel hits such as “Hannah Montana,” left a company’s business lopsided in a instruction of immature girls.

Iger, who is set to retire as CEO in 2015, leaves a party groups distant some-more offset by patron gender, while a wire business all though owns masculine eyeballs by a ESPN networks.

All this, of course, is good accepted by a market, and Disney faces a comparatively high bar to transparent when stating a mercantile second-quarter results. The Wall Street accord for per-share gain is 77 cents a share, adult from 75 cents foresee for a entertain during a start of a year. Estimize.com, that crowd-sources estimates from buy-side professionals and other investors, and has tended to be some-more accurate than sell-side consensus, is display an 80-cent expectation.

Disney shares, meantime, are during an all-time high. And during above 18-times expected 2013 profits, shares are valued during a reward to Disney’s Big Media peers, that themselves trade during abounding multiples of gain after years of marketplace outperformance. Disney is substantially a highest-quality media hulk formed on a cable-business brew and a irreproducible inlet of a impression set.

Along with peers such as Time Warner Inc. (TWX), Disney is proof a value of exclusive content, display an ability to get paid for it in a digital universe and posterior a trained use of capital. All this is now taken for postulated by investors, who on Tuesday will no doubt grasp for insights about ESPN ad-pricing and income approval rates; a predestine of streaming-service Hulu.com (partly owned by Disney); and a opinion for branch around a video-game business.

Even if they won’t griddle Iger on a anticipation of a Marvel deal, investors will positively need to hear some sum on Disney’s subsequent act in sequence for a batch to keep working.