It’s the first time that Apple has appeared in top spot on brandchannel’s list since 2011, so the marketing department that reports to Tim Cook must’ve been working overtime to make sure plenty of iPhones, Macbooks and white earbuds were on show over the last year. Of the 35 number one movies in the U.S. during the course of 2014, Apple products appeared in 9.
That’s one film ahead of Coca-Cola and Sony, who have to settle for joint second place in the rankings, while last year’s winner Budweiser dropped down to fifth. A single mention can count as an ‘appearance’ — such as when Lord Business mentions his iPod Shuffle during The Lego Movie.
Slightly more overt in its product placement is Captain America: The Winter Soldier, where Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson do a spot of impromptu hacking inside an Apple Store. Of course these kind of spots are an integral part of keeping the movie industry afloat, and can often account for a substantial amount of a film’s funding: Heineken was said to have paid $45 million to feature prominently in 2012’s Skyfall.
9 out of 35 movies might seem like a high percentage, but Apple has scaled its efforts down in recent years. According to brandchannel, in 2011 the company’s goods appeared in 42.5 percent of top-ranking U.S. movies.
