In this week’s edition of the Variety Movie Commercial Tracker, powered by iSpot.tv, LucasFilm claims the top spot in ad spending with “Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens.”
The latest installment in the beloved saga set a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, “The Force Awakens” saw an estimated $7.2 million spent on TV advertising last week through Sunday, with 359 national airings across 31 networks, led by CBS and NBC.
Following on its heels in second place is Ron Howard’s whaling epic, “In the Heart of the Sea,” which saw $5.5 million spent, bringing its lifetime total through Sunday to $23.6 million.
Debuting in third place this week is the latest Will Smith vehicle, “Concussion.” The Columbia Pictures drama saw $4.7 million spent, with 395 national airings across 30 networks, led by CBS and Fox. In fourth: Warner Bros.’ “Rocky” spin-off, “Creed,” which saw $4.4 million spent, bringing its lifetime total to date to $27.7 million.
Rounding out the list is the latest offering from Disney Pixar, “The Good Dinosaur,” which saw $4.3 million spent on 1,044 national airings across 35 networks, led by NBC and CBS.
Overall, the movie industry spent an estimated $59.6 million on television advertising last week through Sunday. Warner Bros. led the spending with 20% of that total, followed by Universal at 16.8% and Columbia at 13.4%. NBC saw the most advertising dollars from studios, with an estimated $15.4 million take, while NFL Football led the way in programming with over $14.2 million spent among the various games.
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Top Movie Commercials by Weekly TV Spend
$7.15M – Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens
$5.55M – In the Heart of the Sea
$4.71M – Concussion
$4.38M – Creed
$4.35M – The Good Dinosaur
1 Movie titles with a minimum spend of $100,000 for airings detected between 11/23/2015 and 11/29/2015.
* 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.