• Los Angeles Times, Monday, April 20, 2009 11 AM

Hollywood studios are having a hard time getting a grip on the movie industry's equivalent of the pork barrel earmark: marketing budgets, reports Claudia Eller. They are hosting fewer lavish premiere parties, curtailing newspaper advertisements and restricting the number of agencies that produce trailers. But that's just trimming the edges.

In the end, the studios are about to embark upon the costliest summer for movie marketing campaigns they have ever pursued. From May through August, they will together spend about $1 billion to market globally such high-profile titles as "Angels & Demons"; "Transformers 2"; the sixth "Harry Potter" film; "X-Men Origins: Wolverine"; "G.I. Joe"; "Star Trek"; "Night at the Museum 2"; and "Ice Age 3."

One major contributor to rising marketing costs is the fragmentation of media, which makes it harder to reach an audience. "Every film launch is a new-product release," says Adam Fogelson, president of marketing and distribution at Universal. "We can't jeopardize successfully opening these pictures."

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