With the NFL Playoffs in full swing, theSuper Bowlis just around the corner, with the big game on February 4 expected to feature a number of commercials promoting some of this year’s biggest movies. A new report confirmed that both Universal Pictures and Paramount Pictures will be shelling out big bucks for ads during the game, although it hasn’t been confirmed which movies will be promoted yet. Whichever ads ultimately air, theseSuper Bowl commercialswill cost the studios a pretty penny. While the price for a 30-second spot for this year’s game hasn’t been confirmed, Fox charged a whopping $5 million per spot last year.
Even though the studios haven’t confirmed which movies will be promoted during the big game, there are a few candidates available for each studio. TheFifty Shades finale,Fifty Shades Freed, will hit theaters on February 9, just five days after the big game, so that’s one possibility of what the studio could be promoting. Other upcoming releases for Universal includePacific Rim: Uprising(March 23),Blockers(April 6), which just released its first trailer today,Truth or Dare(April 27),Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom(June 22),Purge 4(July 4),Skyscraper(July 13) andMamma Mia: Here We Go Again!(July 20),Halloween(October 19),Dr. Seuss' The Grinch(November 9) andMortal Engines(December 14).
Paramount has quite the diverse slate itself that it could promote with itsSuper Bowlcommercials, including the upcomingAnnihilation(February 23),Sherlock Gnomes(March 23),A Quiet Place(April 6),Action Point(May 11),Mission: Impossible 6(July 27),Overlord(October 26) andBumblebee(December 21). Both Paramount and Universal purchasedSuper Bowlads last year, with Paramount debuting aBaywatch Super Bowl spotand ads forTransformers: The Last KnightandGhost in the Shell. Ironically, all of those movies underperformed at the box office, while Universal only debuted one TV spot to promoteThe Fate of the Furious, and while it underperformed domestically, it pulled in over $1 billion internationally for a global total of $1.23 billion, the second highest worldwide total of the year behind Disney’sBeauty and the Beast($1.26 billion).
Warner Bros. typically doesn’t advertise during the Super Bowl but the studio would not comment on their plans for the big game this year. Disney would also not confirm their plans for the Super Bowl, but earlier today,Solo: A Star Wars Storydirector Ron Howard teased the firstHan Solo trailercould be coming soon, with some speculating that it could be here at some point this week. While that speculation has yet to be confirmed, it’s possible that Disney could debut the first footage during the big game. While the studio may not necessarily need to spend that much money to promote aStar Warsmovie, thisHan Solospin-off has had its fair share of controversy after directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller were fired, after filming for four months. Most of their material was entirely scrapped, with new director Ron Howard stepping in to finish the movie.
Reps for 20th Century Fox and Lionsgate also would not comment on their Super Bowl plans, but with less than a month left until the big game, we should start to hear more about the studios' plans. Themovie industryis expected to be one of the top ad buyers this year again, following the 2017 broadcast where studios spent the fourth most out of all advertisers, behind automobile manufacturers, telecom marketers and beer makers. The four categories represented 44% of the total ad time from paying advertisers, according to ad-spending tracker Kantar, with those four groups taking up a record-setting 41 minutes and 30 seconds of air time during the event.Varietybroke the news today about Universal and Paramount confirmed for purchasing ad time forSuper Bowl LII.
