Wall•E is expected to easily become the year’s most marketed movie, with DreamWorks’ Kung Fu Panda coming close behind. Last year, Ratatouille topped the marketing charts, with Disney spending $54 million to cook up ads for the Pixar-produced pic. To put that into perspective, the industry average to promote a pic was $35.9 million last year. And Cars, The Polar Express and Finding Nemo led each annual list, respectively, before that. Why are animated features the most expensive movies to promote, easily costing tens of millions more than the average pricetag to promote live-action features? Simple, explains Variety. For one, it pays off handsomely at the box office, attracting families and repeat viewing from younger auds. They also bring in considerable coin from DVD sales and videogames. Off the screen, they amass millions more from merchandise and toy sales, or as attractions that lure tourists to theme parks. Because of such huge returns from ancillaries, studios will continue to make the huge outlays for promotion and marketing. There’s also the stock price. DreamWorks Animation is a publicly traded company and relies on the success of its pics to prop up its shares. At DreamWorks Animation, ad budgets have been going up each year, and with each release. Topper Jeffrey Katzenberg already is planning on spending more to launch Monsters vs. Aliens next summer than any previous feature because the pic will showcase the studio’s efforts to sell 3-D.