Six movie-focused TV commercials aired during the Super Bowl, shining in what is the most expensive advertising platform. The NFL football championship game averaged 125 million people — TV’s biggest audience — in the U.S. and Canada with 30-second commercials priced $8 million to $10 million each.
The six are for Netflix’s “The Adventures of Cliff Booth”; Disney’s “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu”; Steven Spielberg sci-fi yarn “Disclosure Day” from Universal (image above); Amazon Studio’s sci-fi “Project Hail Mary”; Universal’s family animated “Minions & Monsters”; and the Peacock streaming premiere of “Wicked: For Good.” Details are in accompanying table below.
Super Bowl’s In-Game Film Commercials
| TITLE | DISTRIBUTOR | PREMIERING | DESCRIPTION |
| “Adventures of Cliff Booth” | Netflix | n/a | Brad Pitt in 1970s Hollywood |
| “Star Wars: Mandalorian & Grogu” | Disney | May 22 | 13th “Star Wars” theatrical |
| “Disclosure Day” | Universal | June 12 | Spielberg sci-fi |
| “Minions & Monsters” | Universal | July 1 | Animated family film |
| “Project Hail Mary” | Amazon/MGM | March 20 | Sci-fi yarn starring Ryan Gosling |
| Peacock | Universal | March 20 | Streaming premiere of “Wicked: For Good” |
Actually, there were three additional TV commercials for movies but they were seen outside the game. These were a movie-oriented commercial montage for the Peacock streamer appearing in halftime; a 15-second “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” blurb that ran in an adjacency; and a full-length 30-second commercial appearing just before game (called the shoulder period or adjacency) for “Scream 7” from Paramount Pictures.
Last year, just three pure-film ads telecast in-game for the Super Bowl, a down year in part because movie flow was interrupted by two Hollywood labor strikes. There was little pregame fanfare for this year’s movie ads, but the six commercials form a respectable presence.
As recently as 2023, there were seven full movie ads in the big game; all were for theatrical runs. In recent history, movie-focused commercials have taken four to 10 slots (each 30 seconds) in the Super Bowl.
Marketingmovies.net has tallied Super Bowl film commercials since 2011 (there were eight movie ads that year). Initially just tracking movies headed to cinemas, MarketingMovies.net expands its definition to commercials for original films in video streaming as well, since these are big-budget and often are accompanied by cinema runs. Also included are hit theatrical films making splashy steaming premieres, since they are supported with big marketing.
This year, other sources did not count as all of these movie commercials; they apparently excluded blurbs from broadcaster NBC Television’s corporate siblings. NBC, Universal Pictures, Universal Studio theme parks and video streamer Peacock are all owned by cable media behemoth Comcast, which practices corporate synergy by encouraging cross buying.
For example, Peacock placed a commercial for its streaming premiere March 20 of theatrical blockbuster “Wicked: For Good” (this movie that ran in cinemas last year is, in turn, is made by Universal Pictures). Other monitoring services did not pick up, apparently not classifying siblings as paid placements. Other exclusions are more baffling such as Amazon Studios’ “Project Hail Mary” being missed.
Media pundits marvel at the Super Bowl pricing but then overlook how its host network TV broadcasters artificially reduce inventory by filling slots with commercials from siblings (what’s left for outsiders becomes scarce, driving up unit prices). This year, the Super Bowl was also streamed by NBC Television sibling Peacock, and Peacock-only ads are not tracked here.
In popularity contests, movie commercials tend to rate low in after-game voting by the public of the “best” advertising. However, “best” is usually won by the most elaborate over-the-top or funniest, and consumer preference does not measure effectiveness. Film ads are hampered by simply being aggregations of scenes from each movie, unlike big-budget original ads of others. In 1998, a now-defunct dot-com retailer showed a gerbil being shot out of a cannon, in what was a humorous special-effects commercial that stood out (the commercial is unforgettable but the advertiser isn’t).
Marketing researcher EDO, however, ranked the top 10 Super Bowl commercials for “engagement,” selecting three movie blubs for its list that measures effectiveness for marketing goals. They were #2 Universal’s “Minions & Monsters”; #4 Netflix’s “The Adventures of Cliff Booth”; and #6 Universal’s “Disclosure Day.” An EDO press release explained its “engagement” criteria as “driving consumer behaviors — such as website visits and brand searches — immediately after the ads airing.” Thus, this engagement criteria aren’t like most other Super Bowl lists that select most jaw-dropping or heart-warming, which may or may not be effective for motivating consumers to pursue marketing objectives.
An advertisement in 1996 is credited with ushering in the age of movies at the Super Bowl, which itself had launched three decades earlier. The viewing audience was wowed by the special-effects visual of the White House being blown to smithereens in sci-fi yarn “Independence Day.”
The current crop of movie commercials is almost obscured by Hollywood talent overrunning advertising for others. For example, cable TV’s Infinity (another Comcast company!) integrated “Jurassic Park” casts and scenes in its original commercial. Ben Affleck appeared in a Dunkin’ donuts advertisement and Emma Stone (“Barbie”) fronted for tech Squarespace. And that list of Hollywood/media celebrities kept going with Jennifer Aniston, Adrien Brody, George Clooney, Bradley Cooper, Matthew McConaughey, Sam Neill (pictured above for Infinity cable TV) and Ben Stiller. Some are Oscar winners and these are still at the peak of their careers, not just doing commercials after their popularity dwindled.
Universal Pictures’ “Fast and Furious” film franchise got a plug with an in-game Super Bowl commercial for a new roller-coaster ride adaptation at the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park.
The new force in TV advertising this year were tech companies, particularly pushing artificial intelligence. Those Super Bowl advertisers were OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft, Google and Amazon. Absent this year are domestic automobile companies, probably licking their wounds from losing gobs of money in electric vehicles, a sector from which they are retreating.
As for new blood in prior Super Bowls, back in 2022, the energy came from cryptocurrency purveyors; back in 2004, it was erectile dysfunction medicines; way back in 2000, it was the short-lived dot-com boom that soon went bust. Whatever rising industry wants to firehose the U.S./Canada consumer market will blanket the Super Bowl with commercials, if it can afford to.
By the way, lost amid the fusillade of impressive TV commercials yesterday, the Seattle Seahawks beat the New England Patriots 29-13.
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