National TV advertising spending slowed down dramatically in the third quarter, falling 42% to $124.7 million, according to estimates from iSpot.tv.
But movie box office revenue grew.

A year ago, over the same period, movie studios spent $216.2 million.

This year's national TV spend resulted in 16.9 billion impressions -- versus 27.2 billion for the same period a year ago. There were 81,889 airings in the year-ago period, compared to this year's total airings, at 62,008.

Top studio spenders in the third quarter of 2022 include Universal Studios with $30.7 million, followed by 20th Century Studios at $17.7 million, Sony Pictures’ Columbia Pictures at $16.4 million and Warner Bros. ($12.6 million).

Lower spending did not affect overall actual movie box-office receipts. There was a 40% gain to $1.9 billion versus $1.4 billion a year ago, according to IMdb Box Office Mojo.

The highest-earning film this year is Universal Pictures’ “Minions: The Rise of Gru,” which took in $367 million in domestic theater revenue in the period. Walt Disney’s “Thor: Love and Thunder” was next at $343.2 million.

Those movies opened July 1 and July 8 respectively, with much of their national TV marketing coming in the second quarter of this year.

A year ago, only one movie posted more than $200 million in the period: Walt Disney’s” Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” ($201 million).

This year movie marketing spending sharply dropped in the last two weeks of August.

Theatrical movie attendance typically declines around the Labor Day period this year. This year to amp up interest an industry-wide movie theaters promotion was offered to consumers -- $3 or less for a movie admission ticket on Labor Day, September 3, calling it National Cinema Day.