Believing strongly in its new iteration of the wall-crawler, Sony went all out putting Peter Parker in the spotlight, with numbers now surfacing that Spider-Man: Homecoming's promotional campaign cost the company north of $140 million (via Deadline).
Spread across a staggering thirty brands, the marketing push is not only the biggest advertising price tag for a Spidey flick, but now in the ballpark of Sony's other international star, James Bond, with the $140 million coming close to that of 007 entries Spectre and Skyfall. For another MCU-related reference point, the figure drastically outweighs that of the push given to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, which possessed an ad budget estimated to be roughly $80 million, according to analysts.
RELATED: Spider-Man: Homecoming To Be Sony’s 2nd Best Opening Ever
“Teaming with these incredible worldwide partners, it signals to the world that Spider-Man: Homecoming is more than a movie: it’s a global cultural event,” Josh Greenstein, Sony’s president of worldwide marketing and distribution stated. Jeffrey Godsick, Sony’s partnerships group chief and the orchestrator of the massive campaign, added, “We have been evolving our promotional campaigns to go well beyond the 30 second [TV] spot. With longer form pieces of content, digital games and activations, and publicity stunts and events, the Spider-Man: Homecoming program best reflects this evolution.”
The film's ad campaign has spread across just about any outlet one can think of, with Spidey-centric bits popping up in commercials and marketing material for Audi, Dell, Pizza Hut, General Mills, Synchrony, Dave & Busters and Goodwill. In an attempt to follow up in their quest for global dominance, Spider-Man: Homecoming was also featured internationally in a Baskin Robbins/Dunkin' Donuts sweepstakes that spread across over two thousand locales. Homecoming also entered a partnership with M&M's, running both digital and in-theater ads all across Europe and Asia.
Spider-Man: Homecoming's glowing reviews and early box office success have the film set to make the Sony and Marvel co-production a massive triumph for both companies, with Sony set to keep all of the film's box office revenue, and Disney keeping all of the lucrative intake from the character's merchandising revenue after acquiring the web-swinger's commercial rights in 2011.
RELATED: Spider-Man: Homecoming Director, Feige Share Insight on Final Scene
In theaters now, director Jon Watts’ Spider-Man: Homecoming stars Tom Holland as Spider-Man and Michael Keaton as Vulture, in addition to Zendaya, Donald Glover, Jacob Batalon, Laura Harrier, Tony Revolori, Tyne Daly, Bokeem Woodbine, Marisa Tomei and Robert Downey Jr.