The premiere of movie trailers has become quite the event, with our first look at footage from highly anticipated films generating millions of views online and endless speculation, debate, and parodies. This year featured some big — to put it mildly — films offering up a preview of what’s to come, including Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Jurassic World, Avengers: Age Of Ultron, and Interstellar.
So which film’s trailer generated the most views this year? The answer might surprise you.
The Hollywood Reporter has crunched the numbers and posted a list of the 20 most-viewed trailers of the year, and surprisingly, the first look at J.J. Abrams’ upcoming return to the Star Wars universe didn’t top the list. What did top the list was the trailer for Fifty Shades of Grey, the big-screen adaptation of E. L. James’ best-selling erotic romance novel (which began as a Twilight fan-fiction project).
The Fifty Shades of Grey trailer came in at #1 on the list with 93 million views since its debut in July. However, Star Wars fans shouldn’t lose too much faith in humanity, as the trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens came in second on the list with 81 million views despite debuting only a few weeks ago (four months after Fifty Shades of Grey).
The remaining list of the 10 most-viewed trailers of the year is relatively predictable, with Avengers: Age Of Ultron (78 million views) following The Force Awakens, then Jurassic World (64M), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (58M), Furious 7 (57.5M), Minions (54M), The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (45M), Dumb and Dumber To (44M), and Interstellar (39M).
It’s worth noting that one film had a pair of entries on the list, with The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 generating 38 million views for its first full trailer and 27 million views for its first, much-shorter teaser trailer.
