DreamWorks Animation and Paramount Pictures hope to score big with a 90-second Super Bowl spot for the upcoming animated feature Monsters vs. Aliens. According to Daily Variety, the entities will spend tens of millions of dollars for the precious airtime, and will also give away 150 million pairs of 3-D glasses so viewers can enjoy the spot’s stereoscopic effects. DreamWorks marketing partner Pepsi will make the glasses available at 28,000 retail locations as part of Pepsi/SoBe Life displays.
With ad revenues down, a Super Bowl spot doesn’t fetch nearly the amount of cash it used to. Each 30 seconds will cost DreamWorks and Paramount roughly $3 million. While the virtually recession-proof film industry will be well represented with trailers for upcoming movies, other advertisers can’t be counted on to spend so freely this year. NBC will air Super Bowl XLIII on Feb. 1.
Directed by Rob Letterman (Shark Tale) and Conrad Vernon (Shrek 2), Monsters vs. Aliens will hit theaters nationwide on March 27. The fun begins when California girl Susan Murphy (Reese Witherspoon) is hit by a meteor full of outer space gunk and grows to 49-feet-11-inches tall. Labeled a monster and given the moniker Ginormica, she is captured and held in a secret government compound where the military has been quietly rounding up other monsters over the years. This ragtag group consists of the brilliant but insect-headed Dr. Cockroach, Ph.D. (Hugh Laurie); a macho half-ape, half-fish known as The Missing Link (Will Arnett); the gelatinous and indestructible B.O.B. (Seth Rogen); and a 350-foot grub called Insectosaurus. Their confinement time is cut short when mysterious aliens land on Earth and the monsters are called into action to save the world from imminent destruction. The voice cast also includes Rainn Wilson (The Office), Stephen Colbert (The Colbert Report), Kiefer Sutherland (24) and Paul Rudd (Role Models).
