‘Get Hard’ Outpaces Cruising ‘Furious 7′ Despite Spending Downshift

In this week’s edition of the Variety Movie Commercial Tracker, powered by iSpot.tv, “Get Hard” maintained the top position for the fourth week in a row, an admirable feat made easier by an overall lackluster advertising outlay from the other movies on the list.

“Get Hard” reduced its weekly ad budget by nearly $3 million, spending an estimated $8.9 million for 1,181 national airings across 43 networks, led by FXX and MTV. But this lower figure was more than enough to outpace “Furious 7,” which matched last week’s $7.4 million spend on 1,047 national airings across 39 networks led by Comedy Central and BET.

The animated kids feature “Home” found its way back onto the list with only $4.5 million spent on 1,639 national airings across 38 networks led by Nick and Teen Nick. The bottom two films are both newcomers. The horror effort “It Follows” debuted at fourth with $3.6 million spent on 502 national airings across 16 networks, led by MTV2 and Spike. Trailing slightly is “Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2″ with $3.5 million spent on 970 national airings across 421 networks led by BET and NBA TV.

As a category, the Life & Entertainment sector spend nearly $54 million for the week, about $20 million lower than recent weeks. Universal Pictures led the way with $13.4 million on 10 spots over 2,398 national airings. Warner Bros. dropped to second with $9.2 million for 14 spots across 1,217 national airings, and Paramount Pictures third at $4.3 million spent on five spots over 707 national airings.

Top Movie Commercials by Weekly TV Spend

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$8.9M – Get Hard

Online Activity: 4.15% within the movie category*

National Airings: 1,181

Networks: 43

Most Aired On: FXX, MTV

Creative Versions: 39

Est. Lifetime TV Spend: $41.8M

Studio: Warner Bros.

Started Airing: 02/13/15

$7.4M – Furious 7

Online Activity: 9.25% within the movie category*

National Airings: 1,047

Networks: 39

Most Aired On: Comedy Central, BET

Creative Versions: 23

Est. Lifetime TV Spend: $23.7M

Studio: Universal Pictures

Started Airing: 12/28/14

$4.5M – Home

Online Activity: 5.46% within the movie category*

National Airings: 1,639

Networks: 38

Most Aired On: Nick, Teen Nick

Creative Versions: 32

Est. Lifetime TV Spend: $24.7M

Studio: DreamWorks Animation

Started Airing: 01/01/15

$3.6M – It Follows

Online Activity: 1.72% within the movie category*

National Airings: 502

Networks: 16

Most Aired On: MTV2, Spike

Creative Versions: 3

Est. Lifetime TV Spend: $3.6M

Studio: Radius TWC

Started Airing: 03/23/15

$3.5M – Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2

Online Activity: 0.45% within the movie category*

National Airings: 970

Networks: 41

Most Aired On: BET, NBA TV

Creative Versions: 11

Est. Lifetime TV Spend: $5M

Studio: Columbia Pictures

Started Airing: 03/16/15

¹ Movie titles with a minimum spend of $100,000 for airings detected between 03/23/2015 and 03/29/2015.
* Percent of digital activity captured across online video, social media, and search activity that was stimulated by these movie trailers and measured in comparison to all online activity in the movie category.

Variety has partnered with iSpot.tv, a company that catalogs, tags and measures activity around TV commercials in real time, to bring you this weekly look at what studios are spending to market their movies on TV. Learn more about the iSpot.tv platform and methodology.

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