What films spend on marketing

A film costs $100 million. Does that include getting people to watch it? Often, the number being discussed is the production budget. The campaign sits elsewhere. So when someone asks what percentage goes to marketing, the first question is: a percentage of what?

/ The denominator changes the answer

P&A means prints and advertising. The BFI describes it, for international releases of UK independent films, as the marketing and technical costs associated with a theatrical release, incurred by the local distributor. It is a useful reminder that the people making a film and the people paying to release it are not necessarily the same.

A hypothetical $50 million campaign for a $100 million production equals 50% of the production budget. It is only one-third of the combined $150 million. Neither calculation is wrong. They answer different questions, and neither includes every possible cost.

/ Before TikTok, the bill was already large

The Los Angeles Times reported that the MPAA's 2007 major-studio averages were $70.8 million for production and $35.9 million for advertising and prints. The latter was roughly 51% of the former. The campaign was already a large additional expense before today's short-video platforms.

There is a catch. The report excluded outside co-financing from the production figure. It was not an all-in account of what every movie cost, and its marketing scope should not be confused with a modern worldwide campaign.

Barbie offers a newer example, not a replacement industry average. In July 2023, Variety reported rival executives' estimate of a $150 million campaign against a $145 million production budget: roughly 103%. Warner Bros.' marketing president declined to confirm the campaign budget. Deadline's later accounting put global P&A at $175 million.

Those are reported estimates with different timing and potentially different scope. They show how big an event campaign can be, not that marketing has doubled across the industry. A single blockbuster and an old studio average cannot establish that trend.

/ How much goes to TikTok?

The public sources checked for this article do not establish a reliable industry-wide percentage. That is the honest answer, rather than assigning a number to a platform because it feels everywhere.

There is evidence of growing investment. In VideoWeek's 2025 interview about Imaginary, Lionsgate's UK theatrical marketing executive Joe Palmer says TikTok is increasing as a proportion of its marketing budget. The campaign combined prominent paid placements, film assets and creator videos. He does not disclose the percentage.

Nor does an enormous volume of fan posts reveal the spend. Variety reported that Warner Bros. worked with 90 creators for Dune: Part Two, while fans made more than 260,000 related videos around its release. Those activities are connected, but they are not interchangeable entries in a budget.

/ Visibility is not a receipt

A 2026 report from TikTok and Cinema United, supported by Comscore, examines how fan-driven conversation correlates with theatrical performance across four selected films. It is useful evidence about conversation around releases. It does not disclose TikTok's share of total marketing expenditure or prove that the platform caused every additional ticket sale.

The next useful question is more specific: for this film, in this territory, how much went to paid TikTok ads, creator partnerships and making the content? Then compare that with the same costs elsewhere.

Marketing can rival the production budget. TikTok can matter without a published spend share. But the amount spent, the attention generated and the tickets sold remain different numbers. A good campaign report should keep them separate.

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