In this week’s edition of the Variety Movie Commercial Tracker, powered by the always-on TV ad measurement and attribution company iSpot.tv, Twentieth Century Fox claims the top spot in spending with “Spies in Disguise.”
Ads placed for the animated film had an estimated media value of $6.63 million through Sunday for 937 national ad airings on 37 networks. (Spend figures are based on estimates generated from Dec. 16-22. Estimates may be updated after the chart is posted as new information becomes available.) Twentieth Century Fox prioritized spend across networks including Fox, NBC and ABC, and during programming such as NFL Football, “The Masked Singer” and “The Voice.”
Just behind “Spies in Disguise” in second place: Universal Pictures’ “Cats,” which saw 1,479 national ad airings across 44 networks, with an estimated media value of $6.42 million.
TV ad placements for Universal Pictures’ “1917” (EMV: $5.84 million), Lucasfilm’s “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” ($5.61 million) and Twentieth Century Fox’s “Underwater” ($4.4 million) round out the chart.
Notably, “1917” has the best iSpot Attention Index (127) in the ranking, getting 27% fewer interruptions than the average movie ad (interruptions include changing the channel, pulling up the guide, fast-forwarding or turning off the TV).
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Top Movie Commercials by Weekly TV Spend
$6.63M – Spies in Disguise
Impressions: 414,620,874
Attention Score: 94.81
Attention Index: 123
National Airings: 937
Networks: 37
Most Spend On: FOX, NBC
Creative Versions: 27
Est. Lifetime TV Spend: $22.19M
Studio: Twentieth Century Fox
Started Airing: 06/18/19
$6.42M – Cats
Impressions: 477,528,078
Attention Score: 90.09
Attention Index: 68
National Airings: 1,479
Networks: 44
Most Spend On: NBC, CBS
Creative Versions: 39
Est. Lifetime TV Spend: $22.96M
Studio: Universal Pictures
Started Airing: 07/23/19
$5.84M – 1917
Impressions: 259,908,735
Attention Score: 95.03
Attention Index: 127
National Airings: 583
Networks: 29
Most Spend On: FOX, CBS
Creative Versions: 11
Est. Lifetime TV Spend: $15.66M
Studio: Universal Pictures
Started Airing: 08/19/19
$5.61M – Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Impressions: 408,668,925
Attention Score: 91.77
Attention Index: 82
National Airings: 1,332
Networks: 40
Most Spend On: ESPN, NBC
Creative Versions: 57
Est. Lifetime TV Spend: $34.98M
Studio: Lucasfilm
Started Airing: 04/16/19
$4.4M – Underwater
Impressions: 153,529,548
Attention Score: 91.04
Attention Index: 76
National Airings: 226
Networks: 18
Most Spend On: FOX, NBC
Creative Versions: 9
Est. Lifetime TV Spend: $6.54M
Studio: Twentieth Century Fox
Started Airing: 08/19/19
1 Movie titles with a minimum spend of $100,000 for airings detected between 12/16/2019 and 12/22/2019.
* TV Impressions – Total TV ad impressions delivered for the brand or spot.
* Attention Score – Measures the propensity of consumers to interrupt an ad play on TV. The higher the score, the more complete views. Actions that interrupt an ad play include changing the channel, pulling up the guide, fast-forwarding or turning off the TV.
* Attention Index – Represents the Attention of a specific creative or program placement vs the average. The average is represented by a score of 100, and the total index range is from 0 through 200. For example, an attention index of 125 means that there are 25% fewer interrupted ad plays compared to the average.
Variety has partnered with iSpot.tv the always-on TV ad measurement and attribution company, 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.