When it comes to making serious money at Sunday’s Super Bowl, you’d be much better off appearing in commercials than on the field. (And you’d have less chance of getting your collarbone broken.)
Members of the winning football team will take home a bonus of $102,000, but that windfall pales in comparison to the cash being generated by the commercials.
A single 30-second spot costs an advertiser around $4.5 million, so it’s no surprise that the celebrities who, more and more, are appearing in them also collect a big payday.
“It ranges from $500,000 to $2 million depending on the commercial and the celebrity,” says one local ad exec who’s worked on Super Bowl spots.
A-list stars don’t get paid more simply because their ads are booked for the big game, but they are more likely to sign up in exchange for the exposure.
No wonder that Drake, Seth Rogen and Amy Schumer are set to appear in commercials this year.
In one of the more famous Super spots — it only aired a single time in 2005 — Brad Pitt shilled for Heineken and reportedly collected more than $4 million.
Game of War’s lavish 2015 commercial featuring Kate Upton relaxing in a milk bath earned the busty model $1 million, according to documents filed in a lawsuit by the video game’s maker.
And Arnold Schwarzenegger may have lost his oomph at the box office, but he’s still making bank in marketing. He raked in a reported $3 million for a Bud Light commercial in 2014.
The cheapest celebrity? That would have to be Will Ferrell. He appeared in a series of truly bizarre commercials for Old Milwaukee beer — one of which aired during the 2012 Super Bowl only in Nebraska.
His salary? $0. He claims he just did it to shoot “crazy fun commercials.”