The Crazy Cost of a Super Bowl Ad

With the Super Bowl fast approaching, many companies are preparing to run advertisements during the big game. According to the Nielsen ratings, 123.7 million people tuned in to watch the Super Bowl in 2024. This easily makes it the most watched event in America. So naturally, many companies will want to advertise their movies. We can probably expect to see a variety of movie trailers during this time. As many of these companies know, the Super Bowl is the only real time when people pay attention to the commercials. However, for a lot of these companies, getting their commercials in front of people won’t be cheap, especially if they are showing a movie trailer or TV spot. For starters, Deadpool and Wolverine, which was advertised during the Super Bowl in 2024, had a marketing budget of 100 million dollars according to Screen Rant. Keep in mind that this budget is on the higher end since it was produced by Marvel Studios and was a heavily marketed movie. Some companies that will be buying out TV slots will have a far smaller budget. According to Variety, a 30 second spot will likely cost between 7 and 8 million dollars. They stated, “Fox, which started out seeking around $7 million for 30 seconds of Super Bowl ad time, had disposed of the bulk of its Super Bowl LIX inventory in August. Still, demand continued even after Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch announced during the company’s third quarter investor call that all ads had sold out. Indeed, the recent California wildfires prompted a group of sponsors — including State Farm Insurance — to ask to be released from their deals, according to the person familiar with the matter, and Fox was able to re-sell their time for higher prices thanks to intense interest. Some of that activity may have spurred a portion of the hefty $8 million-plus pacts.” Despite this ridiculous tag, companies will have a chance to advertise at a prime time and reach a much wider audience than what they might’ve initially. Either way, advertising at the Super Bowl really comes down to a simple calculation: will it be worth it or not?