There was a lot of buzz surrounding this week’s debut of the trailer for Pixels, the upcoming action comedy about aliens who invade the Earth in the form of old-school arcade games, but just how much buzz the preview generated was apparently a pleasant surprise for Sony Pictures. According to the studio, the trailer set a new studio record for views in the first 24 hours of its premiere.
Sony Pictures announced this week that the Pixels trailer was viewed 34.3 million times in the first day of its release, making it the most successful trailer debut in the studio’s history. The record was previously held by The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which generated 22 million views in the first 24 hours it was available.
So how does that compare to other films’ trailers? To put things in perspective, last year’s most-watched trailer for the entirety of 2014 was the Fifty Shades of Grey trailer with 93 million views in five months. It was followed closely by the trailer for Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens with 81 million views in just a few weeks (the trailer debuted in December).
Set to hit theaters July 24, 2015, Pixels is directed by Chris Columbus (Home Alone, Mrs. Doubtfire) and stars Adam Sandler, Josh Gad, Kevin James, and Peter Dinklage as a group of old-school gamers enlisted to prevent an alien invasion that has taken the form of classic arcade games like Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, etc. According to the film’s synopsis, aliens misinterpreted video feeds of the games that were broadcast during the ’80s as a declaration of war, and respond with an onslaught of Space Invaders-styled assaults on the planet.
The film is based on a short film by Patrick Jean.
