Dentsu is making a big Hollywood bet alongside ‘Angry Birds 3’ — and beyond

When "The Angry Birds Movie 3" opens in December, it'll grade the franchise's tie-up alongside creators including MrBeast and Salish Matter, who are part of the cast. It'll additionally characteristic a alliance alongside a lesser-known actor: Japan's ad agency collection Dentsu.

Dentsu is becoming one of Hollywood's newest investors, and "Angry Birds 3" is the most apparent part of its push.

Dentsu stated the attempt is its archetypal matter chief funding in a movie (it declined to say how ample the interest was). The company, which is credited as a manufacturer on the movie, is additionally contributing to the movie's $66 myriad promotion and allocation budget.

Beyond "Angry Birds 3," Dentsu has been engaged in another latest amusement projects:

• It partnered alongside Made By Us Studios in June to create and create creator-led films and shows.
• It invested to assistance bring Gore Verbinski's sci-fi wit "Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die," to theaters in North America in February.
• It partnered alongside the PGA of America in 2025 on an animated characteristic concerning sports, as manufacturer and financier.

Dentsu execs say there's additional in the pipeline and that the business plans to allocate in additional TV and movie projects throughout genres and sizes, including titles akin "Angry Birds 3" that are earth and multiplatform.

"We really desire to be capable to bring our clients and bring brands nearer upstream, to the creators, to the IP owners, and assistance brands to activity additional creatively at really first stages," stated Cathy Boxall, Dentsu's earth caput of entertainment. "And alongside creators themselves being additional embedded inside Hollywood, we awareness akin that's a really, really breathtaking chance for brands."

Dentsu joins another big ad holding companies in getting a bigger foothold in Hollywood. These firms anticipation to stance themselves as amusement experts for brands trying to attain ad-avoidant consumers. For brands, that can average doing a promotion tie-up alongside a buzzy TV display or making their own shows or movies.

For "Angry Birds 3" and another projects in its pipeline, Dentsu gets a archetypal attempt at possible client integrations or co-promotions. The business stated it's gotten a brace of clients — which it declined to name — unified into "Angry Birds 3" this way.

Dentsu additionally wants to capitalize on a change in the amusement ecosystem — as the figure of big studios shrinks — and stance itself to win additional clients for its consulting and promotion services.

"What you're seeing in Hollywood correct now is that what was the representative amusement client is changing," stated Paul Kang, caput of substitute funding at Dentsu. "From a studio sense, there's small of them now. But you've got additional autonomous producers that are coming to agencies akin ours, looking for promotion assistance than five, 10 years ago."

Dentsu stated its risen overview in movie has borne fruit. In supplement to creating opportunities for brand partnerships alongside clients, the business stated it had seen an uptick in involvement from possible amusement clients.

Other ad giants have moved into entertainment

There's a crowded market of companies competing to assistance brands expert Hollywood, from endowment giants to specialty agencies and producers.

Holding companies typically commit prosperity to advance a movie by lining up brands to co-market it, and recoup their funding by assisting clients get unified into the project.

"Brands cognize they need to leverage amusement and civilization to run endeavor growth," stated Julian Jacobs, who co-heads amusement promotion at UTA.

WPP and Publicis are considered standouts among ad holding companies for connecting brands to Hollywood.

WPP has Motion Entertainment, which funds, develops, and produces TV, film, and digital content, and is finest known for co-producing and financing the actuality TV hit "Love Island." It additionally provides WPP's ad clients alongside first-look opportunities and first admission to talent, ideas, and platforms.

Publicis, through its amusement arm Publicis Media Content & Innovation, invests in the betterment and backing of shows. It particularly focuses on new properties akin the sitcom "DINKS," which it completely financed, to get brand clients archetypal dibs on ad opportunities, sponsorships, and admission to talent.

Jae Goodman, whose Superconnector Studios helps brands create amusement strategies, stated he's glad to see additional players get engaged in amusement — alongside a caveat.

"Media agencies do finest whenever they don't fair attempt to leverage their media buys to get merchandise integrations and first TV shows made for their clients, but additionally employ experts in integration and TV display development," he said.