Super Bowl Commercials 2022: Top Movie Trailers to Debut This Sunday

Super Bowl LVI between the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals, like those before it, will be one of the biggest sporting events of the year, if not the biggest outright. 

The global must-see event's ability to draw eyeballs stems from its all-encompassing nature, which includes its standing as a Super Bowl of sorts in the advertising realm, whether it's products, brands or even movie trailers. 

Hollywood's involvement in Super Bowl commercials and trailers is always an interesting subject. Given that the game always takes place in February, it gives off the feel of a preview for the entire year's worth of movies set to hit the big screen. 

Last year, Megan Graham of CNBC reported buyers would cough up roughly $5.5 million for 30 seconds of airtime. According to Peter Aitken of Fox Business, that number has jumped to roughly $7 million this year. 

Translation: There's a lot at stake for ad-buyers and movie studios. 

Nail a trailer and the cost of running it in a Super Bowl slot is immaterial. That's a gamble Universal Pictures seems ready to take based on a recent teaser that suggests the company will reveal a full-blown trailer for the upcoming Nope, a horror film from Jordan Peele: 

Not everything will be brand new despite the costly slot, though. 

Anthony D'Alessandro of Deadline says the Jurassic World: Dominion and Winter Olympics crossover will air again: "Of particular note, we hear that the Jurassic World-Winter Olympics tie-in spots featuring snowboarder Shaun White, ice skater Nathan Chen and downhill racer Mikaela Shiffrin, which have already debuted, are expected to air again."

Others will be a hybrid—movies that have already issued trailers that will follow up with a new one for the much bigger audience. 

D'Alessandro says Paramount will roll out a trailer for The Lost City featuring Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum and Brad Pitt. 

Interestingly, COVID-19's impact on the film industry has to come into consideration, too. Top Gun: Maverick made an appearance at last year's Super Bowl, got delayed due to the pandemic and just had a custom spot during the AFC title game ahead of its release date on May 27: 

Netflix will get in on the action, too, according to D'Alessandro, with a trailer for The Adam Project, featuring Ryan Reynolds and Jennifer Garner. 

Mark Ellis of Rotten Tomatoes told Cody Benjamin of CBS Sports that it's reasonable to expect Lightyear to make an appearance, too. 

Pixar dropped a new trailer for the movie featuring a noteworthy nostalgic astronaut on February 8: 

Rounding out the "expected" column in the film department is an almost guaranteed bet that Marvel will throw out a Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness trailer to keep the Marvel Cinematic Universe pipeline going strong. 

More so than usual, though, things are rather tight-lipped when it comes to movie-trailer debuts. The industry largely sat out of Super Bowl advertisements last year during the showdown between the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers because the pandemic had largely shuttered theaters and halted the business. 

Another factor to that equation is the promotional game just changing as the world evolves. Warner Bros., for example, largely shies away from the costly ads, instead leaning into social media and other events that garner big attention, too. 

Either way, from what we know so far, the Super Bowl should feel back to normal with studios again throwing out trailers for some of their biggest projects during the big game. And, given the context, if there were a time for major surprises that viewers wouldn't forget, it would be during Super Bowl LVI.