The One Record Disney May Not Be Able to Break
More often than not, Disney is in competition only with itself. The studio, which ended 2016 with a record-breaking $7 billion at the global box office, set a new record on Wednesday when the trailer for Thor: Ragnarok became the studio’s most-watched trailer in a 24-hour time span on YouTube—beating a record previously set by its live-action Beauty and the Beast adaptation, starring Emma Watson. The latest installment in the galactic Marvel franchise racked up 136 million views in just one day, per The Hollywood Reporter. However, it fell short of becoming the most-watched trailer in 24 hours overall.
Beauty and the Beast previously held the record as Disney’s most-watched trailer in that time span, with a stunning 127.6 million views. For a brief time, Beauty was also history’s most-watched trailer in 24 hours, outpacing previous record-setters Fifty Shades of Grey (114 million views in 24 hours), Star Wars: The Force Awakens (112 million), and Captain America: Civil War (94 million views). The latter two entries on that list, of course, are also Disney films.
But despite Disney’s wild success and its varied franchises, from revamped princesses to Marvel heroes to the enduring Star Wars films, the studio’s trailers have recently been outpaced by promos for films from other studios. The current title goes to New Line, thanks to eerie new footage for It, the reboot of the killer-clown film based on the enduring Stephen King novel. The horror trailer, released in late March, quickly notched 197 million views across platforms like Facebook and YouTube, according to Deadline—scorching every trailer record previously set by Disney.
Though it’s natural to assume that It had beat out another Disney property for the most-watched crown, that’s not quite the case either. Before It emerged, the film with the most overall trailer views in 24 hours was not Beauty and the Beast but The Fate of the Furious, Universal’s mammoth racing property, which was viewed 139 million times in the same time frame in December. Universal, as any foot soldier paying close attention to the studio wars will note, is Disney’s biggest competition worldwide, thanks to the success of the Fast films, as well as Minions and Jurassic World.
Still: Thor: Ragnarok came closer to beating the current trailer record than any other Disney property, and quickly dominated social media thanks to its spectacularly fun, stylized first look. The latest installment is director Taika Waititi’s first go at a Marvel movie, and the newly released footage gave fans a glimpse of his interpretation of this colossal world, which is also pulling in superhero newcomers like Cate Blanchett and Tessa Thompson. Waititi infused the film with his trademark sense of humor as well, best exemplified when Thor (Chris Hemsworth) gleefully dubs the Hulk a “friend from work!” Too bad his hammer couldn’t smash through the trailer wars.