The Deadpool & Wolverine Trailer Just Smashed An Impressive Record

Here's some Hollywood math to throw at you before most people in the Western Hemisphere have even had lunch today (because that's just how we roll at /Film dot com). Combining super-popular characters in the same movie will usually lead to more dollar signs. Who knew?! When you show off that footage for the first time during a game that has become a bona fide, pop culture-defining event (and that was before the Taylor Swift Effect), you can bank on public interest shooting through the stratosphere. Believe it or not, that's basically what happened with the Super Bowl trailer for "Deadpool & Wolverine" — at least, according to Marvel's accounting.

Perhaps all those claims that the superhero movie bubble has officially burst were a little premature? That's what Marvel Studios signals in a new press release, announcing that the "Deadpool & Wolverine" trailer didn't just break records, it outright shattered them into a million pieces. In the span of only 24 hours, the new footage reportedly racked up 365 million total views, making it by far the "most viewed movie trailer of all time." That might sound incredibly hard to believe, especially in a world where movies like "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," "Spider-Man: No Way Home," and both "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Endgame" all would've seemed like contenders for that particular crown. Well, apparently not even the biggest blockbuster juggernauts of the last decade could fend off the fan fervor surrounding Ryan Reynolds' Merc with a Mouth joining forces with Hugh Jackman's Wolverine, a reunion that's set to right the wrongs from that 2009 debacle of "X-Men Origins: Wolverine."

That's a pretty emphatic way to back up that "Everybody deserves a happy ending" tagline but, as always, such high-flying proclamations deserve a little more scrutiny.

On the face of it, the "Deadpool & Wolverine" trailer hitting such a milestone right from the jump would seem to be worthy of celebration (for Disney stockholders, at least), right? Well, maybe it's worth exploring exactly how Marvel arrived at its stated figures.

So, about that record. According to the analytics-focused website Statista, the previous record-holder for the most amount of trailer views within 24 hours belonged to the initial "Spider-Man: No Way Home" teaser back in 2021, with 355.5 million views. Prior to that, the title belonged to the "Avengers: Endgame" teaser released in 2018 (289 million). By any standard metric, 365 million is definitely higher than those other numbers. (See, who needs a fancy accounting degree?) But when you actually head on over to the YouTube link for the "Deadpool & Wolverine" trailer posted by the official Marvel Studios account, well, you'll notice that the 16.7 million views (as of publishing) don't even come close to what Marvel's claiming. That's because the studio is likely adding up views from every single account, from YouTube trailers (posted by each official affiliate, including Ryan Reynolds' personal channel) on every platform (from Instagram to TikTok to, uh, wherever else kids these days are consumin' their content). But what actually counts as a "view" and how much of this are repeat viewings? Since Marvel isn't releasing any actual details about how they arrived at this figure, we'll never know!

So is all this an example of putting a thumb on the scale a bit? Probably, but that's just how the game is played these days. So, ultimately, "Deadpool & Wolverine" has broken a pretty substantial record. What that actually means is up to you.

"Deadpool & Wolverine" slices into theaters July 26, 2024.