How Did Oscars Best Picture Contender TV Ads Stack Up?

Trailers for theatrical releases are all over TV, but not necessarily for all of the Academy Awards best picture nominees. Data from iSpot shows that since the start of 2023, Oscars frontrunner Oppenheimer was the nominee most invested in TV, with ads amounting to $25.7 million in est. national TV media value (ranked No. 6 among all films in the timeframe).

• Comparatively, Killers of the Flower Moon was No. 19, at $17.8 million.
• Barbie – a behemoth at the box office – was No. 47 by media value at $9.6 million (not including various cross-promo spots, and of course all of the social media activity leading up to its release).
• Other nominees like The Holdovers, American Fiction, Poor Things and Maestro had media value between $4 million and $6 million.
• Past Lives, Zone of Interest and Anatomy of a Fall didn’t advertise on national linear TV at all, and had minimal TV ad impressions on streaming.
• Lesser promotion around award movies is becoming a larger trend, too: 2023 Best Picture winner Everything Everywhere All At Once didn’t air any ads on national linear TV, while Apple spent less than $7 million promoting Coda (and a bunch of that came after the film won).

See the list of the top 50 films by TV ad media value according to iSpot, below (Best Picture nominees highlighted).