TNT Secures TV Rights to ‘Avengers 2′ and Four Future Marvel Movies

If you thought studios securing release dates years in advance for movies that don’t even have titles yet was crazy, you haven’t seen anything yet. Now, television networks are now buying the rights to air those untitled movies years before they’re even released in theaters. Specifically, TNT has signed on the dotted line with Marvel Studios to air the next five Marvel movies, which includes ‘Avengers 2,’ ‘Captain America 3,’ ‘Ant-Man‘ and, um, two others.

It’s a testament to the power of Marvel’s brand that someone would be willing to make that kind of deal right now, especially since they won’t be able to actually start airing these movies until two years after their release. To put that in perspective, they’ve bought the rights to premiere an unknown 2017 movie, but won’t actually be able to show it until 2019. In a word: craziness.

Here’s TNT’s official statement on the matter, which, as you’d expect, isn’t particularly exciting:

Marvel’s brand of entertainment is a thrill ride for audiences, and we’re excited to be adding their next five blockbusters to TNT’s arsenal of high-quality genre fare. These movies will play a key role in TNT’s long-term success, especially among key adult demos.

We expect that the other two movies in the package will ultimately be ‘Doctor Strange‘ and ‘Thor 3‘ (or ‘Guardians of the Galaxy 2‘) but you never can tell with Marvel Studios. In any case, the superhero movie bubble doesn’t look like it’s going to pop for awhile now, so this is a good longterm investment on TNT’s part. When someone is dividing and conquering like Marvel, you should grab for those coattails and hang on tight.

Source: TNT Secures TV Rights to ‘Avengers 2′ and Four Future Marvel Movies