Source: AdAge
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” is making its theatrical debut next Friday. And while Disney/Lucasfilm’s promotional TV spend has been moderate by blockbuster standards, the real money is in the co-branded spots.
According to iSpot.tv estimates, the studio thus far has shelled out $19.3 million to air the “Force Awakens” trailer across 44 broadcast and cable networks.
Warner Bros., by comparison, dropped $32.2 million on TV time for “Mad Max: Thunder Road” and earmarked another $29.8 million to hype the Dwayne Johnson disaster flick “San Andreas.”
If the “Force Awakens” promo spend falls short of the efforts made for some of the summer popcorn movies, the studio more than made up for the seeming shortfall by aligning the “Star Wars” universe with every brand under the twin suns of Tatooine.
Brands that have hopped on the “Force Awaken” bandwagon are Campbell’s, Kraft, GoGurt, General Mills, Subway, Dodge, Verizon, CoverGirl, and others.
The co-branded spend adds up to some $47 million in TV dollars. All told, the placement of the official “Force Awakens” trailer and the co-branded spots adds up to around $66.3 million in national TV inventory.
A second subset of co-branded merchandising spots that are not explicitly aligned with the movie (action figures, games, etc.) has poured another $51.4 million into the TV ecosystem. Among the toymakers, videogame publishers and non-endemics eager to align themselves with the “Star Wars” brand are Lego, Walmart, Hasbro, Hot Wheels, PlayStation, GameStop, Electronic Arts, Kay Jewelers, Kohl’s and Burlington Coat Factory.
