Over the past several years, Internet video has become an integral part of the online experience for movie-going audiences. Cinema buffs and casual movie-goers alike have instant access not only to movie trailers, but also to cast interviews, behind-the-scenes clips, audience video reviews, and more. While the film industry has acknowledged that this data is crucial for gauging a film's online buzz and audience interest, it has lacked a consistent, coherent way to measure, quantify, and compare the performance and impact of its online promotional efforts.
And so we created the Variety/Visible Measures Weekly Top Ten Online Film Trailers Chart. The chart features the most-watched online film trailers each week, aggregating data from over 150 online video-sharing destinations – including YouTube, MySpace, Yahoo!, DailyMotion, and others. To help you interpret the results on each week's chart, we’ve compiled the following Five Keys to Understanding Online Film Trailer Performance.
1. Convenience is King
The majority of online audiences visit major video-sharing destinations to consume video content of all shapes and sizes, including film trailers and related content. In fact, movie trailers are consistently among the most popular clips on the Web (and make up more than 15% of Visible Measures’ 100 Million Views Club).
2. In the World of Online Video, the Audience Gets Involved
As with all social video, clicking the “play” button is just the beginning of a viewer's interaction with a trailer, and, potentially, a film. Viewers can then rate the trailer, comment on it, share the link via e-mail or instant messaging, embed the clip in their social networking profile(s) or blog, and even pull the stream down to remix or recreate it, and then re-upload the final product to any number of video-sharing sites.
3. To Measure Interest and Impact, You Need to See the Big Picture
For the most comprehensive view of a film’s online reception, you should look at every interaction with every video related to the film, whether the video was created and uploaded by the movie studio or by an enthusiastic member of the viewing audience.
This approach is based on True Reach™, a measurement that encompasses views generated by studio-syndicated clips (the trailers and cast interviews uploaded by the studios or their agencies) as well as audience-generated content (video reviews, user tributes, and reposts). Accurate assessments of online interest in a film can only occur with such an expansive approach.
4. Use Overall Category Trends to Benchmark Relative Performance
When analyzing the films on the chart, consider that an analysis of 25 recent online video film campaigns revealed that the average film experiences a dramatic increase in views during the week prior to launch, generating daily view counts approximately 300% higher than those just a month before release.
To understand how a film is performing online, and to assess what these results might mean for box office potential, compare this film against others in the same genre as well as those that open at the same time. This analysis will be more fruitful and illuminating than judging success based on the performance of a single film.
5. The Bottom Line
While it's still too early to equate online video views with box office dollars, the reception of an online film campaign can serve as a key indicator of the film’s eventual box office performance.
For instance, online video content for Summit’s Twilight amassed more than 100 million views by the time the film launched last November. Twilight had 1,800% more views than the “average” film in the week prior to launch, and subsequently delivered a robust $70 million opening weekend.
Get the Latest Online Film Trailer Performance Figures Every Week
You can find the Weekly Top Ten Online Film Trailers Chart every Friday on Variety.com and in the print edition, Daily Variety. Check back for our analysis of the most-watched movie trailers and industry trends. And, as always, for a more detailed analysis of the performance metrics for your Internet video campaign, please contact our client team.
---
About the Author
Nathaniel Naddaff-Hafrey specializes in online video performance for the entertainment industry. When not in the office, he claims to do a lot of "field research."
