The streamers are sitting on the sidelines
Back in 2018, Netflix dropped the mic in a big way by dropping The Cloverfield Paradox on the service immediately after Super Bowl 52. But even though the streamer has another sci-fi adventure on the way this year with The Electric State—starring Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt—it opted not to release the movie, or even a trailer, during Super Bowl 59. And Netflix wasn’t alone; Apple was the only streaming-specific company to book Big Game time to hype a full-length feature, and that ad was pregame. It’s further evidence that the economics for streaming movies are increasingly different than theatrical movies.
Animation domination?
Animation has proven its box office value time and time again. Four of the Top 10 movies at the 2024 box office were feature-length cartoons—including the year’s highest-grossing movie, Inside Out 2—and The Lion King: Mufasa and Dog Man are currently pulling families into theaters for repeat viewings. But studios like Disney were strangely reluctant to tease their 2025 animated offerings during the Super Bowl, a list that includes Pixar’s Elio, the Mouse House’s Zootopia 2, and Universal’s The Bad Guys 2.
The closest we got were live action/animation hybrids like the aforementioned How to Train Your Dragon, Lilo & Stitch—which did a stunt instead of a spot—and Smurfs, which aired earlier in the evening. Maybe they assumed that all the kids went to bed when it became clear that there would be no Joy in Chiefs-ville.
