The reason was the strong performance of Toy Story 3 and Iron Man 2 in the third quarter of 2010, as opposed to the weaker performance of Cars 2 and Thor in the current quarter.

FORBES: Disney Goes With The Flow: Beats On Higher Ad Rates, Solid Theme Park Profit

Disney dubbed the next slate of superhero features as Phase 2, with plans for Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Avengers 2, Ant-Man and possibly more.

FORBES: Disney Pushes To New Highs As Investors Weigh "Iron Man 3" And Q2 Earnings

Amazon.com announced a new licensing agreement with EPIX for movies including The Avengers, Iron Man 2, The Hunger Games, Super 8, Thor, and more, expanding its catalog of title offerings for Prime Instant Video to more than 30, 000 movies and TV episodes.

ENGADGET: Amazon Q3 2012 earnings: $13.18 billion revenue, net loss of $274 million

As I reported a few weeks ago, films like Kung Fu Panda 2, Pirate of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, and Thor have turned in disappointing 3-D box office numbers.

FORBES: More Trouble for 3-D