Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant is now playing everywhere, and if for some reason you didn’t know that, then 20th Century Fox has failed miserably. Despite generally positive reviews and a sizeable built-in fanbase, the studio has still spent an exorbitant amount of money marketing the sequel, ensuring you get your butt into the theatre this weekend to check out the next chapter in the Alien franchise. How much exactly, you ask? Well, try $22.35 million – on television ads alone.
While that’s far from the most expensive promotional campaign Hollywood’s ever seen, it’s quite a bit of money, especially for a project that doesn’t hail from DC or Marvel, or have Star Wars in the title. If you’ve been watching the small screen lately, then you’ve probably already caught one of the 31 TV spots for Alien: Covenant, as Fox has ensured that their ads will air 1,706 times across 43 different networks, with the majority showing up on TNT and Comedy Central.
To put things into perspective, Warner Bros.’ marketing budget for Wonder Woman is about half of that. The studio is spending a cool $12.02 million on the upcoming blockbuster’s television campaign, which gets them 10 different ads to air 605 times on 48 networks. Now, it’s possible that Fox has spent less elsewhere in order to put more into TV, but even still, $22.35 million is a big number and it’ll be interesting to see if it pays off in the end.
Currently, analysts are putting Alien: Covenant at $42 million this weekend domestically, which is solid but not spectacular business. However, when you throw in the international haul, where it’s expected to open strong, that number should rise even higher. So, the studio will most definitely see some sort of profits coming in from the flick – especially since the production budget was only $97 million.
Will it be enough to justify their huge ad spend though? That remains to be seen, but stay tuned to We Got This Covered over the weekend as we’ll be sure to update you with those final box office numbers once they roll in.
