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The movie industry is huge, with global box office receipts reaching a new high of $42.5 billion in 2019. However, this large figure does not imply that all films are profitable; in fact, many films wind up being loser bets. Indeed, despite the fact that thousands of films are produced each year, only a small fraction of those are developed into feature films with the large budgets we associate with the Hollywood film industry. Although the rare independent, low-budget film will break out and become a smash hit (“Napoleon Dynamite,” “Super Size Me,” and “Paranormal Activity” are all examples of low-budget blockbusters), the majority of blockbusters are on the high-budget end.

A large studio film typically costs roughly $65 million to create. However, production costs do not include distribution and marketing, which adds another $35 million or so to the entire cost of producing and marketing a blockbuster film, bringing the total cost to around $100 million.

According to new study from Neustar shared with Marketing Dive, digital media drove 46 percent of movie box office sales despite accounting for only 14 percent of studio marketing budgets. The study looked at more than 70 U.S. films across various marketing channels, including TV, web, display, online video, paid Facebook advertisements, out-of-home, radio, print, and paid search, with a total marketing spend of $1.8 billion.