The usual studios — Universal, Paramount, Disney, and maybe even Fox — again are aboard to tease their upcoming event pics during Sunday’s Super Bowl. And the notion that the majors have sticker shock over this year’s record $5.6 million 30-second ad spot cost isn’t really stopping them from banging the drum before an estimated 98 million people as the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers face off in Miami.
In fact, there’s likely to be more movie trailers airing this year versus last, at least 10-plus to Super Bowl LIII’s eight spots. In certain years like 2016, as many as 15 movie trailers aired. Note that Warner Bros. traditionally sits out of the Super Bowl, and Sony occasionally (which we hear is the case again this year). How many movie trailers air during Super Bowl LIV depends on how big Disney wants to go. Last year it had three: Avengers: Endgame, Toy Story 4 and Captain Marvel, all of which went to gross more than $1 billion worldwide.. Disney also aired three in 2018 and two in 2017.
Making the most noise heading into Super Bowl weekend is Universal, which is throwing a concert at noon PT Friday in Miami, where it will drop the Fast & Furious 9 (now known as F9) trailer with performances by Wiz Khalifa, Charlie Puth, Cardi B, Ozuna and Ludacris (the last three also star in the movie) with a livestream on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. The Justin Lin-directed ninthquel opens May 22 for Memorial Day weekend. Today, Universal dropped a slew of character posters from F9 including this motion-version of Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto:
Universal’s Fast & Furious franchise always scores big coming away from Super Bowl. Last year, the spinoff Hobbs & Shaw led all Super Bowl movie trailers in post game online traffic (within the first 24 hours) racking up 85.5M views, beating even Disney/Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame, which drew 59.1M views, according to RelishMix (see the chart below). It also beat the post-Big Game 24-hour online traffic of 2017’s Fate of the Furious (42.2M).
Look for other Universal films such as Illumination’s sequel Minions: The Rise of Gru (July 3) and Blumhouse’s The Invisible Man (February 28) to have spots during the Big Game, the latter H.G. Wells feature adaptation to run during the pre- or postgame.
Paramount could air the most trailers of any studio this year, as many as four, with most running during the pregame. Expect trailers for the Memorial Day weekend release The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run (which dropped today), Sonic the Hedgehog (which looks to own the Presidents Day weekend box office with a $47M-plus four-day opening) and A Quiet Place II (March 20).
It’s also conceivable that Paramount/Skydance’s June 26 release Top Gun: Maverick will air, given how Tom Cruise’s recent Mission: Impossible pics traditionally have been a part of Super Bowl. Last-minute details are being discussed, I hear.
Also, don’t be surprised if a special Super Bowl trailer for MGM/Eon’s 007 movie No Time to Die drops on Sunday, the Daniel Craig movie expected to be this Easter’s blockbuster when it opens on April 10.
Disney, which generally is quiet on specifically what it air, often has made Pixar and Marvel part of its Super Bowl spot lineup, so expect something from Black Widow (May 1), Pixar’s Onward (March 6) or Soul (June 19). If Marvel decides to skip the Big Game this year, that would be a shocker. Let’s not forget Disney’s first event feature of 2020, Mulan (March 27), or even Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt’s adventure movie Jungle Cruise (July 24). Johnson is no stranger to Super Bowl weekend, typically being a part of such trailer drops as Baywatch and Skyscraper. The latter 2018 release had a 45-second spot during that year’s game, followed by a full trailer drop during Johnson’s appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon following the Super Bowl.
We can’t overlook 20th Century Studios, now in Disney’s fold,. It traditionally has promoted its pics during the Big Game, with Alita: Battle Angel getting the big push last year. This time, 20th Century is particularly excited about the July 3 Ryan Reynolds action comedy Free Guy, about a bank teller who discovers that he’s actually an NPC inside a brutal, open-world video game. Reynolds’ previous Super Bowl trailer was Deadpool back in 2016.
Here is a look at the Super Bowl LIII trailers that got the biggest pop online in the 24-hour period following the game, courtesy of social media analytics corp RelishMix:
