For some, Super Bowl Sunday is the culmination of a season’s worth of rooting for and against favorite and hatred football teams with some incidental scarfing down of pizza and buffalo wings. But for others, such as say myself, the country’s most watched sporting event isn’t so much about the game but the virtually no-holds barred advertising that surrounds it, and for our purposes, specifically the ads for what could be some of the biggest movie blockbusters of the year.
This year, we’re seeing that there are six films that the studios feel are worth ponying up the $4 million-per-30 seconds that network CBS is charging advertising.
Interestingly, Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Brothers and Sony have chosen to pass this year on advertising their upcoming wares this year. Fox and Warners both have big superhero films – The Wolverine and Man Of Steel respectively – and it seems odd that they wouldn’t want to get them out in front of the heavily male demographic eyeballs that will be watching on Sunday. And given that it was the White House explosion in the Independence Day spot back in 1996 that became the most talked about moment that year, it is surprising that the Sony didn’t want to try and recreate some of that with an ad for their the terrorists-attack-the-White House flick White House Down.
Here’s the breakdown by studio and when you can expect to see them.
Disney – The studio taking the biggest plunge, Disney is taking out time for three of their upcoming releases. Oz: The Great And Powerful and Iron Man 3 will be getting 60-second spots while The Lone Ranger will be getting 90 seconds. Airing during the pre-game show, the Lone Ranger spot is probably the most important for Disney. Westerns aren’t all that popular right now and there has been some derision of star Johnny Depp’s non-traditional make-up and costume for the Lone Ranger’s partner Tonto. Given that their bungling of the spot they bought to hype John Carter last year has been pointed at one of the reasons why the film was DOA at the box office, the studio has to get it right this time. The Oz and Iron Man adverts will run during the game itself.
Paramount – The studio isn’t being quite as flamboyant as Disney with its advertising of its two biggest summer releases – World War Z and Star Trek Into Darkness. Both are only getting 30-second spots; World War Z during the pregame show and Star Trek coming sometime during the second quarter.
Universal – Vin Diesel let the cat out of the bag a few weeks ago when he tweeted that his upcoming Fast And Furious 6, directed by Justin Lin, was getting a Super Bowl ad. The 30-second spot will be the first footage we see of the upcoming summer release.
