Hollywood Loves the Tiny Screen. Advertisers Don’t.

Superman has the power to leap tall buildings. But leaping onto a cellphone screen is proving a little trickier.

Warner Brothers recently created a six-episode series of short videos for mobile devices based on the popular Superman television show, “Smallville.” The episodes tracked the history of Oliver Queen, the “Smallville” billionaire mayor who, like Clark Kent, has a superhero alter ego, the Green Arrow.

For Warner, it was a way to tell the Green Arrow story that might have otherwise been missed. “We were never able to do that in the show,” Lisa Gregorian, the executive vice president of worldwide television marketing for Warner Brothers Television Group, said of the “Smallville Legends” mobile series.

But while short, multiepisode cellphone series are growing in popularity, the lucrative advertising dollars prevalent in other entertainment segments — and which studios rely on for profit — have been slow to migrate to the supersmall screen. Sprint, which underwrote the series as part of an overall deal with Warner, was the only sponsor, Ms. Gregorian said.

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