• by Wayne Friedman , July 15, 2016

Since the week leading into the big Memorial Day weekend, movie studios have spent 13% more in national TV advertising versus a year ago for some 25 films, running 219 different commercials.

From May 23 through July 14, some $409.1 million has been spent by the major movie studios in national TV, according to iSpot.tv. This is up versus the similar time period a year ago, when $363.8 million was spent for 32 movies, running 235 different spots.

Universal Pictures has spent $75.97 million; Warner Bros, $74.39 million; Twentieth Century Fox, $61.91 million; Walt Disney Pictures, $33.55 million; and Paramount Pictures, $29.55 million.

This year, ABC has again posted the biggest movie spending of all networks at $65.4 million, followed by NBC at $41.8 million; Nickelodeon, $21.8 million; Fox, $20.1 million; and TNT, $18.4 million

ABC gained much revenue from the dramatic 2016 NBA finals, with $44.1 million of its network take going into that seven-game series. One major reason: This highly rated TV sports programming caters to one key demographic for movie studios -- young men.

BET’s “2016 BET Awards” was next at $15.7 million. NBC’s high-rated big summer series, “America’s Got Talent,” -- another lure for young male moviegoers -- came in at $9.1 million. ESPN “SportsCenter” came in at fourth place with $8.1 million.

Early-round NBA playoffs on TNT, ESPN, and NBA TV also pulled in big movie money, at $7.2 million.

The highest-spending movies thus far since the week before the big Memorial Day weekend are: Universal’s “The Secret Life of Bets”, $31.1 million; Walt Disney’s “The BFG”, $24.9 million; Warner Bros’, “The Legend of Tarzan”, $23.2 million; Fox’s “Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates”, $22.4 million; Fox’s “Independence Day: Resurgence”, $21.9 million; Sony’s “Ghostbusters”, $21.3 million; Warner Bros’ “Central Intelligence”, $19.4 million; and Disney Pixar’s “Finding Dory”, $18.7 million.

Last year’s big movie spenders were: Disney-Marvel’s “Ant-Man”, $22.6 million; Warner Bros’ “Magic Mike XXL”, $22.1 million; and Universal’s “Jurassic World”, $21.8 million.