Marvel money

Marvel Entertainment reported its second-quarter earnings today. Though it said its profit was up 61 percent compared to the second quarter of last year, that was still below analysts' expectations. While the figures included "pre-sales" of the movies "Iron Man" and "The Incredible Hulk," they didn't include actual revenue from success at the box office. Earnings from the publishing sector were down a bit; Marvel attributed that to the big success in the second quarter of 2007 of items such as "The Death of Captain America" and "Civil War" trade paperbacks. It also noted, though, the "rising costs for talent and paper."