UPDATE: The Iron Man 3 release date has been confirmed as May 3, 2013, which is pretty much exactly what you already expected. Carry on.
From the moment Disney purchased Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion last September, it was clear that Marvel's distribution deals with other studios-- Paramount for Iron Man and The Avengers, Fox for the X-Men titles-- would be sewed up and transferred over to Disney at some point. Now the first of those deals have gone through. Deadline reports that while Paramount will be releasing Thor and Captain America next summer, the currently planned Iron Man 3 and The Avengers will now be Disney films.
In the press release the studio announced plans to pay $115 million to Paramount for the distribution rights to both films; The Avengers is set for a summer 2012 release, while Iron Man 3 is still in the early stages of development but seems likely for a 2013 release. The move makes perfect sense given Disney's ownership of Marvel Entertainment, but it still probably hurts for Paramount, who helped build the Marvel library into what it's worth today, and who worked with Marvel as they put together the massive Avengers film. Just because it was inevitable doesn't make it any less difficult on their bottom line.
