It cannot be denied: The Super Bowl generally translates into big box office.
However, there are only three motion picture studios — Disney, Paramount and Universal — willing to pony up $7.5 million-$8 million for a 30-second spot on Fox before an audience that last year reached 123.7 million viewers across live linear and streaming.
For those in the dark, Super Bowl LIX on February is a rematch of the 2023 face-off between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs, the latter eyeing an unprecedented third consecutive Super Bowl title.
Say what you will about linear being dead, but when it comes to live sports programming, it’s still a prime means of reaching a moviegoing audience. Big tentpole movies like Deadpool & Wolverine ($211.4M opening) and Wicked ($112.5M) launched during last year’s Super Bowl.
This year, count on the following to air either pre, during or post-game:
(L-R) Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Joseph Quinn, Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby at Comic-Con
Getty Images
Disney, the No. 1 studio of last year with more than $2.2 billion in domestic box office, has always had a presence at the Super Bowl. It won’t be a surprise if it shows off wares for upcoming pics Snow White (March 21), Lilo & Stich (May 23) and Pixar’s Elio (June 13). We understand they’ll only be showing off two out of three of their upcoming Marvel Studios movies, a batch that includes the upcoming Captain America: Brave New World (February 14), summer kickoff Thunderbolts* (May 2) and Fantastic Four: The First Steps (July 25). That said, the studio has always launched the first look of a big summer movie during the game, with past such titles being Deadpool & Wolverine and Solo: A Star Wars Story.
Universal, the No. 2 studio with $1.88B domestic in 2024, will be wowing with trailers for Dean DeBlois’ live-action take of his How to Train Your Dragon (June 13) and the Scarlett Johansson-Mahershala Ali-Jonathan Bailey starring Jurassic World Rebirth (July 2) from Gareth Edwards. Don’t be surprised if you catch a Blumhouse title, like a M3GAN 2.0 (June 27). You’ll remember how Uni previously stunted the first installment with dancing M3GAN dolls on talks shows and popular landmarks like the Empire State Building.
Paramount is no stranger to the Super Bowl, even when its sister CBS network and Paramount+ isn’t broadcasting it (Fox has the game this year). This year, the buzz is that Par will air spots for the Jack Quaid comedy thriller Novocaine (March 14), the Smurfs animated musical movie starring Rihanna (July 18) and Mission: Impossible – Final Reckoning. Mission movies dropped Super Bowl spots in 2018 and 2023 for Mission: Impossible – Fallout and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, respectively. As far as if there’s a bigger stunt related to the film, Tom Cruise likes to keep those surprises under his belt.
Sitting out this year are Sony, Warner Bros, Netflix, Amazon MGM Studios and Lionsgate. It’s not expected that Apple Studios will have anything either. The last time Warners made a big play during the Super Bowl was for 2023’s The Flash. James Gunn’s Superman won’t have a new spot; those trailers aired during the AFC and NFC championship games last weekend.
Per RelishMix, the five most watched Super Bowl trailers on social media in the 24 hours after the game were Deadpool & Wolverine (75.4M views $211.4M opening), Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (43.2M views, $58.4M opening), Wicked (40.1M views, $112.5M opening), Twisters (29.2M views, $81.2M) and Despicable Me 4 (27.9M views, $75M 3-day/$122.6M 5-day opening).