Lights, Camera, Apple! Tech Giant Product Placement King

For big theatrical movies, the most common product placement brand name continues to be Apple. But other brands -- Nike, Ford, and Chevrolet -- are catching up.

Apple has been the reigning king of product placement in theatrical movies for the last several years. In 2010, it had a 30% share -- or in 10 of 34 No. 1 U.S. box office movies in a particular week. This includes "Iron Man 2", "Toy Story 3", "The Social Network," and "Tron: Legacy," per Brandchannel, a brand consultant/Web site.

Brands like Nike, Ford and Chevrolet had a 24% share in 2010's top movies -- each were in 8 of the top 34 No. 1 movies. In 2009, Apple had a 44% share of No. 1 movies -- 19 of 44. In 2008, Apple was in 50% of all No. 1 movies -- 20 of 41.

Other notables in 2010 were Sony -- seven movies, a 21% share -- and Dell, Land Rover, and Glock (guns) were in six movies apiece, for an 18% share.

The most product placements for a movie in 2010 went to "Iron Man 2" -- 64 identifiable products/brands.

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In 2010, Brandchannel said 591 brands/products appeared in 33 top films -- an average of 17.9 brands per film. This is a slight increase from 2009, which averaged 17.5 brands in films that had the No. 1 position in a given week, in terms of U.S. box office revenues.

While critics may despair over the marketing of brands in theatrical movies -- and on TV -- Brandchannel notes the average number of brands in movies has actually dropped from 21.5 brands per movie in 2006.

Apple-branded products have been on top in recent years, but since 2001, Ford actually gets the most attention -- in 144 of 334 No. 1 movies. Apple is second at 112 movies, followed by Coca-Cola, with 96 films.

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