• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • About Marketing Movies
  • About the Author
  • What experts say
  • Buy the book
  • Contact
movie marketing news

Marketing Movies

Film marketing news, features

  • news
  • Movie studios
    • Independents
  • exhibition
    • Cinema distribution
  • creative
  • promotion
    • Product placement
    • Merchandise
  • advertising
    • Prints & advertising
  • publicity
    • Talent
  • digital
    • Digital distribution
    • Digital marketing

Movies Take Hefty Eight Super Bowl Ads

February 11, 2011 by Robert Marich Leave a Comment

A sizeable eight movie ads appeared in the Super Bowl, as Hollywood shows no lack of confidence the theatrical distribution business. Another handful of movie ads were in pre-game and half-time adjacencies in the telecast of the professional football championship.

"Cowboys and Aliens" poster
“Cowboys & Aliens” got a $2.8 million+ Super Bowl commercial.

Last year, just six movie commercials ran and the year before that nine films took 11 commercial slots. This year, Fox Broadcasting televises the NFL football championship game Feb. 6 and commercials cost $2.8-3 million for 30-second spots. The telecast generally squeezes in 70 in-game commercials.

According to iSpot.tv, in-game commercials ran for 20th Century Fox’s “Rio”-two spots; Walt Disney Studios’ “Captain America: The First Avenger” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides”; Universal Pictures’ for “Cowboys and Aliens” and “Fast 5” (latest for the “Fast and Furious” franchise); Paramount’s “Kung Fu Panda 2”; and “and Relativity Media’s “Limitless.”

Another handful of movie commercials appeared in the pre-game and half-time.

It’s interesting that 20th Century Fox was supposed to be a no-show given its corporate sibling Fox Broadcasting telecasts. But the Fox studio took in-game commercials at the last minute, perhaps replacing late cancellations.

In pre-game business stories, it was suggested the Super Bowl would telecast 10 or more movie ads. However, Paramount’s “Rango” and “Super 8” were no-shows, at least within the game itself.

In any case, the News Corp.-owned studio popularized buying the Super Bowl for movies with its impactful “Independence Day” movie ad in 1996 famous for the “money shot” of the White House being blown to smithereens.

Another interesting tidbit: normally big-spending Warner Bros. sits out this year. “Since 1991, about (120) movie ads have run in the Super Bowl with varying degrees of success,” notes the book “Marketing to Moviegoers: Second Edition.”

Relativity Pictures takes a big step up because it is a film financing company that aspires to be a full-service movie conglomerate, though films it has distributed so far have not ignited in boxoffice.

In audience rankings of favorite commercials, movies typically populate the bottom of the list because they are simply mini-trailers essentially stitching together scenes from their films. In contrast, other advertisers spend big money sometimes producing ads just for the Super Bowl.

Related content:

  • iSpot Shows Eight In-game Film Commercials
  • Studios Set Super Bowl Ads; ‘Pirates,’ ‘Transformers,’ ‘Captain America’
  • H’wood to run blitz at Super Bowl-Studios to Promote at least 13 Pics during Feb. 6 Broadcast

Filed Under: advertising Tagged With: expenses

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Learn Film Marketing

Robert Marich's "Marketing to Moviegoers" is the essential guide to selling films in a multiplatformed world. For students and industry pros alike.

  • About author Robert Marich
  • Industry pros review the book
  • Read excerpts from the film marketing book
  • Buy the movie marketing book

Search by keywords

Search by category

Recent posts

  • Film Fest Ovations Stoke Marketing
  • Radio Pitches Wide Reach for Movie Ads
  • Amazon Emerging as Major Movie Studio
  • ‘Minecraft’ Ignites Rowdy Cinema Rally
  • Fan-Made Film Trailers Flourish
  • Best Bet for Netflix: Acquiring Theatricals
  • Wow! $215 for Cinema+Meal
  • Filmmakers Self-Brand With Text Styles

Tags

affinity groups arthouse awards bombs branding buzz campaigns-strategy controversy critics data demographics documentaries economics education expenses festivals genre genres history-memorablia messaging mobile-wireless movie trailers organizations out-of-home posters regulations social media video-marketing windows

Copyright © 2025 Robert Marich · All rights reserved · Privacy · Contact