6 Minutes
The 2025 trailer season delivered a surprising mix of franchise dominance, streaming power plays, and moments of genuine originality. According to data compiled by WaveMetrix and reported by Dark Horizons, The Devil Wears Prada 2 emerged as the most-watched theatrical trailer of the year, outpacing heavyweight Disney titles and Marvel-adjacent buzz with a staggering 181.5 million views in its first 24 hours. That figure also crowns it the most-watched comedy trailer in 15 years — a reminder that star power and savvy social posting still move the needle.
Disney’s near-total control of theatrical buzz
Disney claimed seven of the top ten spots in the theatrical trailer chart, underscoring the studio's continued mastery of franchise marketing and nostalgia-driven releases. The top film list reads like a roadmap of Disney’s strategy: remakes and continuations dominate. The Devil Wears Prada 2 sits at #1, followed by the live-action Moana (2026) and Lilo & Stitch (2025), and includes animated sequels Toy Story 5 and Zootopia 2. Also on the list: The Fantastic Four: First Steps and the newly released Avatar: Fire and Ash.
Top 10 Most-Watched Theatrical Trailers of 2025 (24-hour views):
- The Devil Wears Prada 2 — 181.5M
- Moana (2026) — 161.2M
- Lilo & Stitch (2025) — 149.4M
- The Fantastic Four: First Steps — 144.1M
- Toy Story 5 — 133.6M
- Avatar: Fire and Ash — 127.6M
- Zootopia 2 — 125.6M
- The Odyssey (Christopher Nolan) — 121.4M
- Michael (Michael Jackson biopic) — 113.9M
- Wicked: For Good — 113M
It’s notable that the biggest non-Disney theatrical premiere belonged to Universal’s The Odyssey, Christopher Nolan’s latest, which landed at #8. The Michael biopic sits at #9 and is the lone original concept in the top ten — the only title that isn’t a sequel, remake or part of an established franchise, which is telling about audience appetite.
Streaming trailers: Netflix flexes, social sharing transforms reach
Streaming trailers told a different story. Netflix dominated with seven slots in the top ten, including multiple teasers for serial tentpoles. Stranger Things' final season claimed three positions — the season release date announcement itself topped the streaming chart with 171.2M views — while Squid Game’s final season took two places. Wednesday and One Piece also boosted Netflix’s presence, showing that the platform’s serialized hits still generate enormous conversational lift.
Top 10 Most-Watched Streaming Trailers of 2025 (24-hour views):
- Stranger Things season 5 release date announcement — 171.2M
- Stranger Things season 5 trailer — 164M
- Squid Game season 3 first trailer — 156.5M
- Stranger Things season 5 first trailer — 154.9M
- Wednesday season 2 trailer — 119.5M
- Culpa Nuestra (Our Fault, Amazon) — 115M
- The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball season 1 trailer — 111.3M
- Squid Game season 3 trailer — 109.9M
- One Piece season 2 first look — 94.9M
- Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (The Final Show) trailer — 82.1M
Amazon’s sole entrant, Culpa Nuestra (Our Fault), was the only streaming film in the top list, while two non-Netflix entries — Gumball and Taylor Swift’s concert film — rounded out the list. One standout marketing detail: roughly one-third of The Devil Wears Prada 2’s early views came directly from Anne Hathaway’s personal accounts across Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, illustrating how celebrity amplification remains a powerful distribution channel.
Industry context and key takeaways
Two broader trends stand out. First, theatrical trailer views for the top ten dropped 8% year-over-year; in 2024, Deadpool & Wolverine’s trailer alone posted a record 262M views, skewing totals higher. Second, streaming trailer engagement exploded — up 146% year-over-year — signaling that serialized streaming franchises and eventized announcements now outpace many theatrical campaigns in raw online attention.
This shift matters for studios and marketers. Serialized storytelling gives platforms multiple content moments to tease and amplify, while theatrical campaigns increasingly rely on cross-platform influencers and star-led pushes. The presence of a single original film, Michael, in the theatrical top ten also raises questions about creative diversity: are audiences yearning for new stories, or do familiar IPs simply have deeper distribution scaffolding?
'As a cinema analyst, I see 2025 as the year streaming announcements became the new blockbuster moment,' says Maria Delgado, cinema analyst. 'Platforms like Netflix are turning show launches into festival-like events. For theatrical distributors, the lesson is clear: social-first strategies and star participation can make or break a trailer’s reach.'
Trivia and fan reaction
Fans were quick to dissect every frame: wardrobe reveals in The Devil Wears Prada 2, the visual effects glimpsed in Avatar: Fire and Ash, and Nolan’s signature practical-stunt teases in The Odyssey generated endless speculation threads. Meanwhile, the Michael trailer prompted conversations about handling biopics of polarizing figures — a reminder that powerful subject matter can both attract views and spark debate.
For cinephiles and industry watchers, 2025’s trailer landscape was equal parts consolidation and evolution. Big brands still rule, but streaming platforms and direct-to-fan amplification are rewriting how hype is built.
In continuing months, expect studios to refine their mix of nostalgia, star-led promotion, and social-first releases — and for streaming platforms to keep turning teasers into cultural events.
Comments
bioNix
Are these view numbers legit or padded? 181.5M in 24h sounds insane, celeb shares explain some but still, curious how they track this, anyone know?
atomwave
Wow, Prada 2 at #1? no way. Anne's posts basically made the trailer explode, nostalgia + star power, ppl ate it up. streaming's stealing the thunder…
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