Marketing Budget for Disney Film Hits $30 Million

In the first large-scale manifestation of the agreement struck last year between William Morris Agency and clothing designer Tommy Hilfiger, the agency has brokered a deal that will provide the Christmas Day release of a Dimension Films sci-fi thriller with a marketing budget that’s larger than the film’s cost.

Hilfiger is contributing an estimated $9 million (though the company would not state the actual amount) toward the movie’s $30-million marketing budget by linking print and TV ads for his Tommy Jeans line to the untitled project.

Though such budgets have been almost routine for expensive Hollywood films, Dimension, a division of Walt Disney Co.-owned Miramax Films, touted the arrangement as creating its biggest movie marketing budget and by far its biggest product tie-in. Dimension declined to state the size of the film’s production budget.

Hilfiger will use the young, mostly little-known actors from the Robert Rodriguez-directed picture in an extensive print and cable television campaign. In addition to brokering the Hilfiger-Dimension deal, Morris represents several actors in the movie.