You may have been thinking to yourself “Oh boy, The Smurfs 2 only made $18 million in its first weekend and cost $105 million to make! Considering The Smurfs cost $110 million to make but made almost $564 million worldwide (seriously, people, how did THAT f’n happen?!) the sequel must be considered a massive failure already, and never again will we have to accept someone making one of these atrocious money-grabs, right? Right?!”

Unfortunately, this is not the case. Not at all. You see, Sony Animation, the studio behind The Smurfs franchise, has a little something something up their sleeve. And that little something something is called corporate advertising. Sony has deals with over 100 partners—including McDonald’s, WalMart, Toys ‘R’ Us, and Macy’s—all of which will deliver over $150 million to the studio.

Paired with the fact that The Smurfs 2 is already quickly approaching $100 million worldwide, not a worry is to be had by Sony, and The Smurfs 3 is already being planned for a 2015 release. How excited are you right now?

So keep this in mind, kids: even when you absolutely despise something Hollywood excretes solely for the purpose of making money, its poor box office showing likely won’t mean a thing if proper promotional deals were reached. While your favorite directors and smaller films, who put their all into the art of filmmaking and delivering top-notch products, could be severely damaged by a poor box office showing.

How does that make you feel?

[Source: A.V. Club, Yahoo! Movies]