Super Bowl's $5M price tag for ads keeps Hollywood from all-out blitz
Disney, Universal and Paramount eye advertising spots for Super Sunday
More than 45 movies will be hitting theaters in February and March, so the Super Bowl would be a prime opportunity for Hollywood's biggest and more profitable studios to advertise on the big game to drive ticket sales. But most of Tinsel Town's marketers are sitting the game out.
While big movies are frequent advertisers during the regular NFL season, the going rate for a 30-second ad at $5.6 million have studio marketing chiefs writing checks elsewhere.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, movie studios in recent years released between eight and 10 spots during the big game. In 2018, that number dropped to six. Even with the estimated more than 100 million people that will watch the game, many studios are deferring to pre- and post-game ads instead. According to Variety, Fox is seeking between $2 million and $3 million for the most expensive advertising slots in its pre- and post-game coverage.
Disney made more than $11 billion at the box office in 2019 and while it has not made public its advertising plans for Sunday, the Reporter promises the studio will have a "presence." Disney has several major films due for release post-Super Bowl: the live-action "Mulan" on March 27 and the latest from Marvel on May 1, "Black Widow" starring double Oscar nominee Scarlett Johansson. The studio's animation house, Pixar, has two titles, "Onward" on March 6 and "Soul" on June 19.
Universal's box office take in 2019, was "only" $4.8 billion, but the Comcast owned studio will put some of those dollars into Super Bowl marketing. It is expected to show a new "Fast & Furious 9" spot for the film's May 22 release. This would be keeping with tradition as all eight previous "Fast" films have advertised on the Super Bowl. Universal is also targeting "Illumination's Minions: The Rise of Gru" due out in July for a role in the big game.
WATCH: EARLY SUPER BOWL TEASERS FOR SOME MILLION-DOLLAR ADS
Viacom's Paramount studio did not have a banner year in 2019, taking in only $1.7 billion in tickets so it may be taking the tact you have to spend to "get." Ads for "A Quiet Place II" (in theaters March 20) will run during the pre-game show as the studio did two years ago when the original "A Quiet Place" was released. Look for spots before the game for two big kids flicks, "Sonic the Hedgehog" -- out Feb. 14 -- and "The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run" a sequel coming out May 22.
Silence centers around whether or not football fans will see anything new for what may be Paramount's biggest title of the year: Tom Cruise's sequel to "Top Gun" which will be released June 26.
NFL COMMERCIALS SCORE BIG IN 2019, PULLING IN $5B IN REVENUE
And there's always the possibility of a surprise. In 2018, for example, Netflix dropped a major ad near the end of the game directing people to watch its original film, “The Cloverfield Paradox,” which was available to stream immediately.
CLICK HERE TO GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO
Picking up the slack for the movie studios, there are a number of brands, like Facebook and Twitch, placing their first-ever ads. President Trump and Democratic hopeful Michael Bloomberg also each took out $10 million, 60-second spots touting their qualifications.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ON FOX BUSINESS