If Volkswagen paid a record-breaking average of $3.5 million for a 30-second commercial spot that cost a grand total of $7 million for the minute-long ad, then Madonna's roughly 13-minute-long halftime show performance is worth about $91 million.
And despite earning $58 million in 2010 and $280 million on her last tour, the "Material Girl" didn't get a dime for her performance during Sunday night's Super Bowl XLVI halftime show.
But neither have any other musical acts in Super Bowl history, including Britney Spears, The Rolling Stones, The Who and the Black Eyed Peas.
“Typically, the entertainers for the Super Bowl do not get a cash payment,” Marc Ganis, president of the consultancy Sportscorp Ltd. explained to Forbes.com. “This is the kind of exposure that entertainers would give their right arm for…they could do 20 Leno and Letterman appearances and still not reach that [kind of] audience.”
And after actually appearing with Jay Leno in a commercial for his late night talk show that opened the half-time show, Madonna's 13-minute long, star-studded performance reached nearly 111 million people.
Perfect timing, considering the Madonna-directed film "W.E." was released wide last week as was her new music video. Plus, Madonna's new album "MDNA" drops in March. Needless to say, the 53-year-old superstar has plenty to promote.
And according to Forbes, all of Madge's show costs are provided for free: "They don’t have to pay for backup dancers, pyrotechnics, load-in, load-out, etc—expenses that can add up to $5-10 million for a show like Madonna’s. They also receive free transportation and accommodation for their entourages."
“They get so much out of it,” Ganis told the mag. “Frankly, it wouldn’t shock me if, some day, the entertainers end up paying the NFL.”
Check out our play-by-play breakdown of Madonna's halftime show performance here >>
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