News
Dip in Super Bowl Movie Ads
Adds "Back-Up Plan" as sixth national movie commercial; Adds "Wolfman" movie from original Feb 7 posting; adds Kantar Media press release counting a total of six movie ads.
By Robert Marich
Feb. 8, 2010 – Six movie ads appeared in the Super Bowl—two from Disney, two from Universal, and one each from Paramount and CBS Films—though that’s down from nine films taking 11 commercial slots last year.
Thirty-second commercials in what is the pro-football championship game cost around $2.8 million each.
Last year, film distributors took 11 spots for nine movies; Monsters v. Aliens had a jumbo 90-second spot.
“Hollywood has been attracted to the Super Bowl as a promotional platform to build awareness for upcoming releases and in 2009 movies were the dominant category with 7 minutes of ad time," continues Kantar. "This year, only six films from four studios (CBS Films, Disney, Paramount and Universal) had commercials and total air time was a meager 2:45 mm.”
“Since 1991, about a hundred movie ads have run in the Super Bowl with varying degrees of success,” notes the book Marketing to Moviegoers: Second Edition. “The placement really became popular in 1996 with Fox’s Independence Day, whose gripping shot of the White House being blown to smithereens by aliens played well to the male audience.”
This year according to USA Today, Disney had separate 30-second commercials for Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time starring Jake Gyllenhaal (which is a May 28 release-rated PG-13) and Alice in Wonderland starring Johnny Depp (March 3 release-not yet rated).
Universal promoted two movies: Robin Hood starring Russell Crowe (May 14 release/not yet rated) and The Wolfman (opening Friday-rated R).
Paramount advertised Shutter Island movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio (Feb. 19 release-rated R).
CBS Television confirmed that CBS Films comedy Back-Up Plan starring Jennifer Lopez (April 23-not yet rated) was another national movie commercial (though was missed by USA Today article below). Some ads that viewers see are local ads placed by local stations and not seen nationally.
For related stories, click links below:
www.usatoday.com/money/advertising/admeter/2010-02-07-results-chart_N.htm
www.marketingmovies.net/news/hollywood-rescues-super-bowl/
www.marketingmovies.net/chapters/chapter-3-paid-advertising/