Last chance to save

Prices rise for the Digiday Programmatic Marketing Summit after Mar. 24

REGISTER

Some Snapchat users aren’t happy about X-Men’s lenses takeover

Brands are invading Snapchat more than usual today.

Snapchat users are noticing that its usual array of rainbow-spewing and other assorted face lenses have been completely displaced by several sponsored lenses for the upcoming “X-Men: Apocalypse” movie. That’s because Twentieth Century Fox purchased Snapchat’s first-ever “lens takeover” package, which lets users morph their faces into characters from the movie.

Some people, however, feel that Snapchat is selling out to companies and running the fun lenses that make the app unique.

Naturally, they took to Twitter to complain:

Relax: the regular selection of lenses come back tomorrow.

In addition to the lens-centric promotion, Twentieth Century Fox is the first company to let users buy tickets to the upcoming X-Men installment within the app. The ads will appear starting today and until May 26 within the Live and Discover stories, letting people swipe up and buy the tickets from Fandango.

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed, although it’s likely in the high six-figures. Digiday previously reported lens can cost as much as $700,000. So, it’s not shocking that a deep-pocketed movie studio is once again wading into untested waters with a pricey Snapchat promotion. Last year, Fox Studio’s “The Peanuts Movie” was the first brand to buy a sponsored lens and Sony bought the first ever pop-up Discover channel for James Bond’s “Spectre.”

More in Media

Why Parker Thatch transformed its strip-mall storefront into a livestreaming studio

Parker Thatch recently remodeled its store to serve as a hybrid customer-facing retail experience and broadcast studio.

Cloudflare’s compliant crawler highlights tension – and opportunity – in the emerging AI content market 

Cloudflare faces tension in its new role: sitting in the middle between publishers and AI companies while balancing trust, control and monetization. 

Media Briefing: What to expect at the Digiday Publishing Summit, March 2026 edition 

Execs from The Atlantic, Arena Group, Bloomberg, Business Insider, The Guardian, New York Post, People Inc., Washington Post, and more, will share their strategies on everything from zero-click audience strategy, to AI licensing deals and RAG readiness, to how they’re embracing creator strategies to help boost engagement with younger audiences.