At the Academy Awards on February 28th, eight nominated films will vie for the title of Best Picture. There are many ways to rank the nominees, and Google and Pixability have teamed up to provide one such measure. Among other insights about movie trailers, they ordered the eight Oscar contenders in terms of the number of views their respective trailers have received on YouTube.
Since big blockbusters like Star Wars: The Force Awakens tend to perform well on YouTube, one might think that Mad Max: Fury Road, a $150 million franchise reboot, would top the Oscar nominees in terms of views. Instead, it is The Revenant that sits at the top of the Pixability list. The survival film’s teaser notched 21.9 million views, narrowly edging out Mad Max’s 21.5 million views on its trailer.
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The other interesting wrinkle concerns the movie at the bottom of the list: Spotlight. Despite receiving just 462,000 views on its trailer, the Boston-set drama is considered a Best Picture frontrunner, suggesting that there may not be a big correlation between a film’s pre-release hype and its success come awards season.
The big takeaway from all the data is that YouTube remains a go-to source for trailers. Taken together, the top trailers from each Oscar nominee have been watched for more than 200 million minutes. That, according to Google, is equivalent to almost one million Oscar telecasts, and if you just watch trailers, you get to skip all the boring parts.
Here, courtesy of Google, is the full ranking of top-performing trailers:
The Revenant | Official Teaser Trailer [HD] | 20th Century FOX
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Mad Max: Fury Road – Official Main Trailer [HD]
Studio: Warner Bros.
The Martian | Teaser Trailer [HD] | 20th Century FOX
Studio: 20th Century Fox
The Big Short Trailer (2015) Paramount Pictures
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Studio: Disney Pictures/Dreamworks
Fox Searchlight
Room | Official Trailer HD | A24
Studio: A24
Spotlight Official Trailer #SPOTLIGHTMOVIE – NOW PLAYING
Studio: Open Road Films