A press release from Marvel Entertainment has revealed that their total first quarter sales have dropped to US$ 112.6 million from last year's US$ 151.4 million.

Interestingly enough, this drop didn't seem to faze the company as it revealed that it is raising fiscal year sales guidance to US$ 370 million to US$ 400 million with profits ranging anywhere from US$ 104 to US$ 122 million.

Some may be wondering what prompted the company to raise its financial guidance despite the drop of revenue in the first quarter. The answer is simple really, they're banking on both the Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk franchises to make them money.

The release (and revenue) of the Iron Man movie and video games (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, Nintendo DS, PC, PlayStation Portable) did not make it into the first quarter report since the cut-off was March 31, 2008. We've been hearing good things about it though, with the movie generating US$100.75 million in North America and US$ 201million globally.

The same press release also revealed the release date of their upcoming video games. The Incredible Hulk (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, Nintendo DS, PC, PlayStation Portable) is expected to be out by June 3 2008 while Spider-Man: Web of Shadows (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable) should come out by Fall this year.