Marvel Studios will shot its next four movies at Raleigh Studio in L.A.

Marvel Studios, a subsidiary of Marvel Entertainment Inc. (NYSE:MVL), made an agreement with Raleigh Studio to shoot four movies including Thor, First Avenger: Captain America, The Avengers, and Iron Man. Marvel will also relocate its Beverly Hills executive and production offices to the Manhattan Beach facility of Raleigh Studio. This deal is the starting point of transition from a licensing company to a movie producer and financier. Reuters reports:

The Marvel deal is a boon for Los Angeles' and California's beleaguered film industry, which has been battling runaway production for the better part of this decade as other states, and other countries, have lured projects with massive tax incentives. The Marvel projects are tentpole movies, and the agreement easily keeps more than $500 million worth of production in the state. "Iron Man," for example, had a production budget of at least $140 million.

The movies will be released in 2010 and 2011 and distributed by Paramount Pictures.

Marvel’s decision to keep its movie production in Los Angeles was not so unexpected. Large part of Iron Man was shot in Los Angeles. John Favreau, director of Iron Man and Iron Man sequel also gave his opinion to produce the movies in California. He has a clause in his contract which says that his movies would be shot in L.A.

Related articles:

Los Angeles Times

Reuters