In this week’s edition of the Variety Movie Commercial Tracker, powered by iSpot.tv, Warner Bros. put “Black Mass” on top of the TV ad spending list. The Johnny Depp film, based on notorious Boston gangster Whitey Bulger, replaces “Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials,” which dropped to second after leading last week.
With an estimated $8.51 million spent on national TV ads, “Black Mass” added 1,265 national airings across 44 networks, to bring the total spent near $15 million going into the week. Trailing was Fox’s “Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials” with an estimated $7.23 million spent, bringing its lifetime total through Sunday to the $12.8 million mark.
Debuting on the list in the third position this week was Warner Bros.’ “The Intern,” a Robert De Niro-driven comedy that saw an estimated $4.9 million spent on 562 national airings across 22 networks, led by MTV and Comedy Central. Dropping to the fourth spot this week was the Weinstein Company’s “No Escape,” which had previously held the number two position the week prior. This week, the Owen Wilson drama saw $3.39 million spent on TV ads, bringing its lifetime total to $15.6 million.
Universal’s “Everest,” debuts at number five on the charts with $3.02 million spent on 82 national airings across 26 networks, led by Discovery and Travel.
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Overall, the movie industry spent an estimated $52.1 million on TV advertising this week, nearly $8 million more than the week prior. Warner Bros. led the spending with an estimated 37% of that total, followed by Twentieth Century Fox at 15.7%, and Universal at a very near third with 14.3%. CBS saw the most overall advertising dollars from studios, with an estimated $5.4 million pushed its way, while NFL Preseason Football and MTV’s Video Music Awards were the individual program events with the most advertising dollars, with nearly $9 million spent between them.
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Top Movie Commercials by Weekly TV Spend
$8.51M – Black Mass
$7.23M – Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials
$4.9M – The Intern
$3.39M – No Escape
$3.02M – Everest
1 Movie titles with a minimum spend of $100,000 for airings detected between 08/24/2015 and 08/30/2015.
* Percent of digital activity captured across online video, social media, and search activity that was stimulated by these movie trailers and measured in comparison to all online activity in the movie category.
Variety has partnered with iSpot.tv, a company that catalogs, tags and measures activity around TV commercials in real time, to bring you this weekly look at what studios are spending to market their movies on TV. Learn more about the iSpot.tv platform and methodology.
