(Los Angeles Times)This town's infatuation with Super Bowl advertising can be a love-hate relationship: For every great "War of the Worlds" football launch, there's a "Hulk" preview that leaves the Super Bowl as bruised as the linemen.
With 30-second spots costing more than $2.7 million, even a quick Super Bowl pitch can eat up nearly 10 percent of a movie's television advertising budget. But because the audience is so huge — more than 93 million viewers watched last year's game — and TV viewers look forward to the commercials, it's irresistible placement. All of the major movie studios except Warner Bros. are buying at least one spot.
"The commercials in the Super Bowl are in themselves an event," said Damon Wolf, the president and chief executive officer of Crew Creative Advertising, a leading movie marketing company. "But what you are putting up there has to deliver. It has to be exciting."
With Anheuser-Busch, Coca-Cola, General Motors and even the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy scheduled to be among the entities running ambitious Super Bowl ads, it will not be easy for the movie studios to make an impression. But if they do, those ads can have an entire second life on the Internet.
Within 10 minutes of their broadcast, Super Bowl ads can be seen — and rated — on
www.spike.com. Among the football spots, movie ads tend to get special attention.
"The people who go to our site are entertainment enthusiasts," said Jon Slusser, a senior vice president for Spike Digital. When visitors find a Super Bowl movie ad they like, it can get many repeat viewings. Five million unique visitors came to the site after last year's game.
"That's the whole point," Slusser said. "They see an ad during the Super Bowl, and they want to experience it again and share it with their friends."
Here's a look at what each studio will be promoting:
Disney: Look for the studio to run two spots for high-profile summer releases. The fantasy sequel "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian," due out May 16, will receive one of the Super Bowl slots, with "Wall-E," the next animated Pixar film, set for a June 27 release, getting the other.
New Line: The studio will plug Will Ferrell's basketball comedy "Semi-Pro," which opens Feb. 29.
Paramount: The studio has crafted a new commercial for "Iron Man," a May 2 release that Paramount and Marvel believe is the next comic book franchise. It will tout "Drillbit Taylor" (March 21) in the pregame show and "Spiderwick Chronicles" (Feb. 14) and "Stop-Loss" (March 28) during "House" after the game coverage.
Sony: The studio is considering running a spot for the July 2 Will Smith action spectacle "Hancock," but so far is putting all its Super Bowl eggs in the basket of Adam Sandler's "You Don't Mess With the Zohan," opening June 6.
Twentieth Century Fox: The studio contemplated running an ad for "Horton Hears a Who," due out March 14, but instead will hawk the sci-fi thriller "Jumper," which opens Feb. 14.
Universal: Probably the biggest Sunday spender of the major studios, Universal will have movie ads throughout the day. The football comedy "Leatherheads" (April 4) will be pushed during the game, as will futuristic action-adventure drama "Wanted" (June 27). Look for spots for next Friday's "Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins" and the Feb. 19 DVD release of "American Gangster."
