Movie studios routinely invest $50 million in marketing upcoming releases in the United States and a little more abroad, the Journal notes, with most of that amount devoted to television.
So far, Disney had doled out about $17 million on TV ads, the Journal reports, citing data from the research firm iSpot.tv that extends through midday Monday, although the firm said it expects that figure to ramp up in the home stretch. For comparison, movie studios pushing other films with high ad budgets, such as Mad Max and Mission Impossible, spent about $30 million, or about twice as much, the Journal said, citing the same database.
Tie-ins with a host of other brands are buoying interest in the series on behalf of Disney as well. Seven official partnering companies, like Verizon VZ 0.98% and Proctor & Gamble PG 0.55% , have contributed $38 million in direct advertising, according to the Journal and iSpot.tv. And other companies such as Walmart WMT 1.42% and Electronic Arts EA 0.97% have indirectly added another $51 million by selling products blazoned with the franchise’s name. (That’s to say nothing of the press attention, too. Ahem, Fortune, Time, Entertainment Weekly...)
Even without going all out on the blockbuster elect’s marketing budget, Disney could still land the biggest box office payday ever—depending, of course, upon how the film is received in China. The cultural phenomenon is itself a self-propelling rocket ship.
http://fortune.com/2015/12/08/star-wars-marketing/