In the first hour after the trailer for the upcoming feature film Star Wars: The Force Awakens was revealed Monday night, 1.3 million Facebook users generated 2.1 million interactions (posts, comments, likes, shares). (SocialTimes)
It generated more than 17,000 tweets per minute, according to Twitter. The trailer premiered during halftime of the Giants-Eagles game on ESPN’s Monday Night Football. (LostRemote)
The film kicked off ticket sales on Monday night, shattering records for several sites. Fandango had a record-setting first day of pre-sales, selling eight times as many tickets as it did on the first day of sales for the previous record holder. The first Hunger Games film previously held the record for the ticket-selling site. (THR / Heat Vision)
Traffic to Fandango’s site surged to seven times more than its peak level in less than 24 hours. There are already sellouts, particularly in IMAX screenings, and to meet the demand, movie theaters are continually adding show times, the online ticketer reports. Star Wars: The Force Awakens presales also broke every IMAX record, generating more than $6.5 million. The film eclipsed The Dark Knight Rises, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Avengers, which each earned around $1 million for their first reported presales. (Variety)
Despite a ratings-sacking 27-7 blowout of the Giants by the Eagles, Monday Night Football saw a spike—a very Star Wars specific, ratings double-digit spike. With a 9.6 rating in metered market results, MNF was up 13 percent over last week’s much tighter 24-20 win by the Pittsburgh Steelers over the San Diego Chargers. That’s the second-best result MNF has had in MM ratings this season. And, highlighting the smart marketing move by Disney for both its sports cable giant and returning movie franchise, the MNF ratings peaked to 11.7 at 9:45-10 p.m. on Monday—right around the time the trailer was being shown. (Deadline)