Disney’s first full trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens debuted last week during halftime on ESPN’s Monday Night Football, where it was seen by a TV audience of 16 million. When it was released on YouTube and social networks worldwide, another 112 million people watched it, for a total of 128 million global views in the first 24 hours.
The franchise’s official website also reports that the latest Star Wars film, the seventh overall, broke records for most advance ticket sales in numerous countries, including over 200,000 in the U.K on the first day. Several movie ticket websites succumbed to the dark side, and either slowed or crashed.
150 lucky fans were invited to the Juyongguan section of the great Wall of China, where 500 stormtrooper figurines and four Chinese characters reading “The Force Awakens” were lit up to celebrate the trailer.
According to Deadline, The new Star Wars trailer increased ESPN’s MNF ratings by 13 percent, with the audience peaking 15 minutes before it debuted. This was icing on the cake for Disney, which owns 80 percent of ESPN.
However, despite its immense popularity, The Force Awakens trailer failed to topple the current record-holder for views. Universal Pictures’ Furious 7 trailer was viewed 100 million times on Facebook alone within its first 48 hours. It should be noted that while Disney used MNF to launch the trailer, Universal used Facebook. The day after its release, The Force Awakens trailer had about 8 million views. Currently, the trailer for Fast 7 is up to 64 million views since its release last November, while that of The Force Awakens is approaching 46 million.
The initial numbers are only part of the story. When it comes to YouTube, the galaxy far, far away has 900,000 subscribers, while Vin Diesel and his pals come in second at 825,000.
The first Force Awakens teaser was released in November 2014, commanding 55 million views in first day, while the second one from April this year got 88 million views.
The J.J. Abrams-directed Force Awakens will be released in the U.S. on December 18.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?
YouTube is changing how its Home page works, giving viewers more control over what shows up there and making some of the app’s most-used sections easier to reach. Custom Feeds are now replacing the existing topic chips for eligible users, while YouTube is also testing a redesigned top bar on mobile that moves Subscriptions closer to the Home feed.
YouTube first started experimenting with Custom Feeds earlier this year, letting you type out what you wanted to watch and turning that request into its own stream of recommendations. Now, the feature is starting to look less like a side experiment and more like something YouTube actually wants people to use as part of their everyday Home page.