Paramount Pictures and Marvel Studios have entered into a distribution agreement for the next round of Marvel pictures. The story was originally broken by Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood before an announcement was made by Paramount later today.

The announcement reads:

”Coming off of Iron Man’s incredible success this summer, we could not be more excited about extending our relationship with Marvel,” said Rob Moore, Vice Chairman of Paramount Pictures. “Marvel’s iconic brand, its popular characters and its proven ability to create compelling and visually spellbinding films complement Paramount’s great history of filmmaking. We look forward to a long and successful run together.”

"Paramount is an excellent partner and an outstanding global distributor,” said David Maisel, Chairman of Marvel Studios. “Through our experience on Iron Man, Paramount has demonstrated a passion and ability to release Marvel properties theatrically, allowing us to focus on making great movies for the largest audience possible.”

After the success Paramount had with distributing Iron Man for Marvel, this deal makes sense for both parties. Marvel had two solid successes with Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, so this is a relatively low-risk move for Paramount, and it has to be good for Marvel to know their distributor this far in advance. The deal includes the theatrical distribution rights for Marvel’s upcoming Iron Man 2 (May 7, 2010) and 3 (unscheduled), Thor (July 16, 2010), The First Avenger: Captain America (May 6, 2011), and The Avengers (July 15, 2011).