"Spider-Man: Brand New Day" opened in U.S. theaters on July 31 with a Hollywood record already behind it.
Sony's promotional partner campaign reached a worldwide media value of $309 million, the largest any film has posted.
The previous record was Sony's own $288 million for "Spider-Man: Far From Home" in 2019.
Early reports put advance ticket sales at $120 million, which was later corrected to $150 million.
The film opened to $360 million domestically, the biggest opening weekend in box office history.
Worldwide, it took $932 million in three days, second only to "Avengers: Endgame" and its $1.22 billion.
The trailer surpassed 1 billion views in four days, with 718.6 million of those in the first 24 hours, the fastest any trailer has hit that mark.
The brand partnership roster behind the film is also one of the largest ever assembled for a superhero release.
165 brand partners signed on, including BMW, Samsung, Little Caesars, Liquid I.V., and ASUS ROG.
Some brands weaved themselves into the film's storyline, while others bought a license and a release date.
This key difference should drive how agencies pitch their next entertainment tie-in.
Brands That Wrote Themselves Into the Story
BMW went furthest of any partner, with both the iX3 and the 5 Series Sedan written into the film's plot around Tom Holland's Peter Parker.
The iX3 is the first model in BMW's Neue Klasse line, so the placement doubles as a launch stage for the company's newest platform.
BMW also debuted a one-off show car at the July 27 premiere, running Spider-Man graphics across full-color E Ink Prism panels.
A short film called "The Big Screen" follows a father who dismisses his son's claim that Spider-Man is on a nearby building.
BMW also unlocked a Spider-Man startup animation on the Control Display for compatible cars in more than 70 markets, running from July 27 to August 10.
Samsung took a similar route and put its hardware in Peter Parker's hands on screen.
Jacob Batalon's Ned Leeds also uses an in-story device called the Spidey Tracker, which Samsung then turned into a real campaign asset.
Batalon also fronts a cinematic TV spot for Samsung, supported by digital, social, out-of-home, and live fan activations.
ASUS ROG computers appear in several scenes of the movie.
The company ran a "Brand New Power" campaign across billboards, transit, print, e-commerce, and retail in 20 markets.
Meanwhile, Liquid I.V. turns up in a bodega that Peter Parker walks into.
Its global campaign pairs the placement with co-branded packaging in nationwide retail, an experiential climbing wall in New York, and influencer content.
Batalon fronts this commercial as Ned Leeds, too, which means Sony sold the same supporting character to two different partners.
Little Caesars belongs in this group as well, since Spider-Man eats its pizza on screen.
The chain built a much larger retail push on top of the placement, which is covered in the next section in more detail.
Each of these partners made something that depends on the film's plot, characters, or devices to work at all.
Product placement commits a brand during production, long before anyone knows whether the movie opens to $360 million or dies in a week.
Every brand here accepted this risk in exchange for a creative asset that keeps running as long as the film does.
Brands That Licensed the Logo
The larger group of partners made activations that borrow the film's imagery without needing any of its story.
Little Caesars ran the biggest of these on top of its on-screen placement.
The Webberoni Pizza arrived on June 22 at $8.99, topped with a web of shredded pepperoni and a toasted two-cheese blend.
Orders came in Spider-Man boxes carrying collectible mini-posters that rotated weekly.
The chain also recreated Peter Parker's apartment for a one-day pop-up in Brooklyn on June 27, complete with a real Zillow listing for the unit.
Used pizza boxes have since been resold on eBay for around $100.
McDonald's ran Happy Meal mini-backpack toys across 80 markets under "Great Power Awaits" messaging.
Singapore released 10 designs on a weekly drop schedule from July 9 to August 12, giving families a reason to return every Thursday.
McDonald's India paired a Spider-Man meal with a limited-edition bucket hat across its West and South regions.
Meanwhile, poppi launched red, blue, and yellow Spider-Man cans across its prebiotic soda line, including a new lemonade flavor.
It is among the first-time Sony partners this cycle, alongside Liquid I.V., Samsung, and Takis.
Takis released four themed flavors and webbed snack bags to the walls around New York in a street stunt.
The push ran as the brand's first global feature film promotion, covering 57 countries.
Dr Pepper put Spider-Man cans on its Dark Berry flavor in Mexico, reviving a tie-in it first ran for "Far From Home" in 2019.
A license, a color palette, and a release date covered everything these campaigns needed.
Themed chip and soda flavors sell themselves off the shelf on impulse while the movie is still in theaters.
These activations exist for retail conversion during a fixed window, which closes when the box office run ends.
The gaming partners sit somewhere in between.
Fortnite added three movie skins on July 30, a Spider-Man outfit with a removable mask, plus Punisher and Hulk.
The Mythic Web Shooters returned for the first time since Chapter 3, and Epic Games ran a Power Hours event on August 1 that made them unlimited.
PUBG Mobile and BGMI reworked Erangel for a limited-time Spider-Man mode, swapping the Gatka and Mansion zones for a high-rise district called Skyline Plaza.
Peter Parker's Gloves and Hoodie unlock web swinging, wall climbing, and Spider Sense inside the mode.
The collaboration runs through September 14, backed by a livestream tournament and premium billboards including Times Square.
Brand licensing buys a window, and the fee is priced against how long this window stays open.
The gaming partners stretched theirs the furthest, which is why a map rebuild costs more than a can design.
Two Different Products for Agencies to Sell
The difference between these two approaches drives what a brand should expect from an entertainment deal, and what it should pay for one.
Little Caesars, Samsung, ASUS, and BMW each got on-screen moments, alongside Liquid I.V.'s bodega appearance.
The other 160 partners bought their way onto shelves.
BMW's vehicles stay in "Brand New Day" every time it streams, airs on television, or gets referenced in a future Marvel film.
A poppi can leaves shelves when the theatrical run ends.
In-film integration requires negotiation during production, sometimes years before release.
Meanwhile, logo licensing gets arranged closer to launch and priced accordingly.
The $309 million figure counts promotional media value and excludes any money from licensing partners.
Disney holds Spider-Man's merchandise and licensing rights, so the retail side of this campaign runs on a separate ledger from Sony's.
Little Caesars and McDonald's still account for the largest share of what does count, which puts a cameo brand and a shelf brand at the top of the same list.
Agencies should treat these as two products, each with its own timeline and cost.
A brand with a multi-year budget and a long-term association goal should pursue in-film integration, the way that BMW and Samsung did.
On the other hand, a brand chasing a short sales spike during a release should take the licensing route McDonald's and Takis took.
Brands and agencies structuring entertainment partnerships can take three things from these Spider-Man campaigns:
- Lock integration early. Production-stage deals ask for commitment years before anyone can forecast the return, so the budget has to survive a long approval cycle.
- Price licensing against the window. A logo deal earns only while the property is in market, which makes the length of that window the main variable in the fee.
- Match the deal type to the goal before signing. The results you're chasing need different contracts, different lead times, and different internal owners.
Entertainment marketing rewards both short-term and long-term deals, as long as the brand knew which one it was paying for.
Our Take: Who Wins When Media Value Sets a Record?
Media value estimates what a campaign's exposure would have cost to buy as advertising.
We'd argue that the figure tells Sony far more than it tells any of the 165 brands that paid into it.
The $309 million proves that the movie's promotional marketing was loud, but the measurement stops there.
We think that Little Caesars and McDonald's account for the largest share of this total.
Their thousands of storefronts and packaging runs generate more countable impressions than a carmaker's scenes ever will.
Media value survives because it is the one number every partner can be handed at the same time.
The brands that learn anything here will be the ones watching their own sell-through in the weeks after opening weekend.
Brands negotiating entertainment partnerships need agencies who understand the difference between a licensing deal and a story integration.
Check out the top entertainment marketing agencies in our directory.
