There’s an unofficial sport taking place during the Summer Olympics in Rio \u2014 promoting Hollywood movies in a bid for the gold.<\/p>\n
Studios are spending many millions to plug a medley of upcoming films \u2014 both movies that are on the verge of opening and others that won’t roll out until winter. Every four years, the Games are the biggest live television event of summer, and the film business isn’t about to miss out on the opportunity, even if the Olympics aren’t as big as the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n
And in a new twist this year, some companies are bypassing theaters altogether, debuting their trailers first during the Olympics, airing on NBC.<\/p>\n
On Thursday night, Disney and Lucasfilm used the Games to premiere a trailer for the\u00a0spinoffRogue One: A Star Wars Story<\/em><\/a>, which doesn’t hit the big screen more than four months from now on Dec. 16. The spot dropped immediately following the swimming portion of the evening, setting social media afire. (Olympic swimming legend Michael Phelps probably never imagined he’d have to compete for attention with Felicity Jones as Jyn Erso<\/a>, the leader of a team tasked with stealing plans for the Death Star ahead of the events of the first Star Wars<\/em> movie in 1977.) To tease the trailer, in the days leading up to the trailer’s first airing, the Rogue One<\/em><\/a> campaign centered on a much-debated spot interlacing footage from the film with footage of Olympic athletes.<\/p>\n