Why Cash App took Timothée Chalamet to the movies

Where to place an ad featuring movie star Timothée Chalamet? Why, at the movies, of course!

The Dune and Wonka star beloved among Gen Z partnered with Cash App for a cinematic, two-minute-long ad spot that is playing in movie theaters across the country this summer. The ad, which also features Didi actor Izaac Wang and explores intergenerational attitudes toward money, is Chalamet’s latest brand deal after working with luxury brands including Cartier and Chanel.

Cash App specifically chose to run the spot before showings of Superman during its opening weekend, with no other fanfare or official announcement—making the ad feel, for one weekend, almost like a gift for particularly devoted Timmy fans, who took to social media to express their excitement about his unexpected in-theater appearance. The ad will also air before showings of The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

While the spot is now appearing on Cash App social channels and is being cross-promoted on Chalamet’s own social media accounts, playing in theaters was key to the brand’s strategy to land with its core Gen Z and millennial audience, Catherine Ferdon, Cash App CMO, told us.

“What we really wanted to do was intentionally stoke interest and curiosity by showing up in those unexpected formats,” she said.

Take me out to the ballgame movies

To create the spot, Cash App worked closely with Chalamet as well as director Aidan Zamiri and writer Elijah Bynum, both of whom have collaborated with Chalamet before. The aim, Ferdon said, was to incorporate the actor’s unique creative lens into financial messaging. As an actor who has “specific resonance” with Gen Z and millennials, she said, his involvement was key to creating a campaign aimed at challenging the expectations that young audiences might have of a finance app.

“We really wanted to do something that gave us the flexibility to elevate our brand storytelling and emotion,” Ferdon said. “It was very important to us that we did not want this to look like a traditional financial services ad.”

It’s not the first time the company has worked with of-the-moment talent. Past partnerships include Kendrick Lamar and SZA, Doechii, Ramy Yousef, and others, all of whom Ferdon said were selected for having a personal connection to the brand and having “unique, engaged fan bases.”

Going the movie-theater route was also key to targeting its younger audience, Ferdon said, because “one thing we know is that Gen Z in particular loves going to the movies.” A report from National Research Group backs this up: attending a movie’s opening weekend is the No. 1 preferred activity for those ages 10–24, according to UCLA’s Center for Scholars & Storytellers 2024 Teens & Screens report.

It’s all about the feeling

Opting to run the spot before showings of Superman on its opening weekend was designed to help stoke excitement and conversation among movie fans and those who are particularly excited about Chalamet’s work, Ferdon told us.

“[It] was really an onslaught of online conversation from younger people who were really compelled to go out and see the latest flicks in theaters explicitly because of this sort of Easter-egg launch available only in theaters before anywhere else,” she said.

To further engage with fans, Cash App directly deposited $25 into certain Chalamet fans’ Cash App accounts to go see a movie—and of course, the ad.

As it continues to roll out, the campaign will also include targeted OOH and shorter versions on CTV and social media, as well as limited-edition Cash App Card stamps featuring imagery from the spot.

Though the campaign was designed to go beyond the theater, Ferdon said this debut strategy allowed the cinematic nature of the creative to feel like a natural fit for audiences. “The long cut is a very artful, intriguing piece of work that sort of demands the full-screen, lean-in nature of cinema,” she said.

And though theater ads might not always be considered by marketers as the sexiest channel, the Cash App team sees it differently.

“Some people might look at media buys in cinema as a more traditional sort of practice of yesteryear,” Ferdon said. “But I think we have a perspective that it’s coming back in a big way.”