The full trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens debuted this week during ESPN’s Monday Night Football and was seen by a TV audience of over 16 million, followed by an immediate release on YouTube, Facebook, and platforms worldwide.
In just 24 hours, the trailer was viewed online more than 112 million times. That’s 128 million times globally in a single day!
Not to be outdone by the trailer, Star Wars: The Force Awakens also obliterated records for advance ticket sales at US and UK cinemas, leading to many early screenings being completely sold out.
Fandango said that the JJ Abrams’ film sold more than eight times as many tickets on its first day of release – Monday – as the previous record holder, 2012’s The Hunger Games. Separately, IMAX revealed it took $6.5m in ticket sales on a single day for The Force Awakens, having never made more than $1m in 24 hours previously. The Force Awakens was also the bestselling film on movietickets.com, representing 95% of sales over the past 24 hours.
Tickets also went on sale in the US after the debut of the trailer on ESPN’s Monday Night Football. In the UK, where tickets went on sale earlier in the day, Disney said a record 200,000 plus tickets were sold in 24 hours, beating marks for Skyfall, Spectre, The Hunger Games and 50 Shades of Grey.
The unprecedented demand on both sides of the Atlantic, almost two months’ prior to the release of Abrams’ film, is leading to speculation that The Force Awakens might challenge Avatar for the mantle of highest-grossing movie of all time.