• by Wayne Friedman , December 5, 2024

With just a few weeks left in 2024, national TV advertising spending and media value of theatrical movies is down 24% to $864.7 million, according to EDO Ad EnGage estimates.

Through December 5, results are down from the $1.14 billion in paid advertising/media value a year ago, season-to-date.

Major movie studio releases for legacy media companies typically benefit from the media value via ad airings on their sister linear TV networks.

So far this year, there have been 181,260 airings (down 30%) resulting in 103 billion impressions. (down 27%) A year ago, there were 262,640 airings and 142 billion impressions.

Domestic box-office revenues (U.S. and Canada) are down 7% so far to $7.7 billion, according to IMDb’s Box Office Mojo.

Revenue declines have been improving in recent weeks due to recent major holiday opening successes: Disney’s “Moana 2” ($221 million, November 25) and Universal’s “Wicked: Part One” ($114 million, November 22).

The biggest spend for an individual movie so far is for Universal Pictures’ “Wicked” -- with an estimated $54.2 million in paid advertising and/or media value, coming from 5,640 airings and resulting in 3.4 billion impressions so far.

Walt Disney's summer release movie “Inside Out 2” is next at $36.8 million. The Disney animated movie had the most airings of any wide-release movie -- over 10,150. In addition, it had the most impressions, at 7.3 billion.

In fourth and fifth place are Paramount’s “IF” ($29.45 million) and Universal’s “Kung Fu Panda 4” ($27.8 million).

In terms of overall movie studio spend, Universal is at $206.7 million, with Warner Bros. Pictures at $147.6 million, Paramount at $115.7 million, Walt Disney Studios at $102.6 million and Sony Pictures at $90.5 million.

Domestic box-office revenue is still down from pre-pandemic levels -- down 25% from a season-to-date $10.2 billion in 2019.