Spotlight on: Film trailers

With the number of films released each year more than doubling since the year 2000 and streamers such as Netflix building a reputation for features, new titles need to find ways to cut through.

Trailers are critical to a film’s box office performance, sitting at the heart of marketing campaigns that can cost US $100m and up on the biggest blockbusters.

Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Endgame is believed to have had a monster marketing budget of US$200m. Its trailers now take top spot on the ranking of most-watched trailers within 24 hours of release. The first full trailer dropped last December, with five months to go before the film release date, clocking 289 million views in one day, according to data research portal Statista. Seven of the top 10 most-watched trailers are from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Endgame directors the Russo brothers know how important it is to get the trailer right. “The thing that’s most important to us is that we preserve the surprise of the narrative,” said Joe Russo in a recent interview with Empire Magazine. “When I was a kid and saw The Empire Strikes Back at 11am on the day it opened…it so profoundly moved me because…