Indie crime thriller “Run with the Hunted” beat out big budget Netflix comedies and star studded political dramas to claim the mantle of most effective trailer this week.
Each week, YouGov Direct asks a group of its members to watch movie trailers. We then report on what they say. YouGov Direct’s surveys investigate how effective movie trailers are in persuading people to consider seeing a film, what they think about the content of the trailer, and how good or bad they expect the movie to be. Thousands of people provide immediate feedback on movie trailers using the YouGov Direct platform.
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“Run with the Hunted” follows a teenage boy who falls in with a gang of young criminals in Tulsa, Oklahoma. When an old childhood friend seeks him out, his life of crime begins to unravel.
This tense thriller from Vertical Entertainment was the least popular movie with respondents both before and after watching the trailer. 17 percent of users said they were already likely to see the movie before watching the trailer. That number rose to 29 percent after viewing. Thriller fans were somewhat more excited about the film than the rest of respondents. Of users who identified as fans of the thriller genre, 32 percent said they were likely to see the film after watching the trailer.
The lift in intent between pre and post trailer for “Run with the Hunted” was 12 percentage points, the highest lift this week. That means despite its lack of overall popularity, “Run with the Hunted” had the most effective trailer in terms of persuading people to consider seeing a film.
With nods to Oliver Twist and Peter Pan, it was the movie's dark storyline that appealed most to users. When we asked what they liked best about the trailer 33 percent said it was the story or theme. Although not everyone was as keen on the trailer. Around one in five (22%) said ‘I don’t like anything about the trailer’ when asked what they enjoyed the most.
The most popular trailer of the week both before and after viewing was for the Netflix documentary “Athlete A”. The documentary follows a team of investigative journalists from The Indianapolis Star as they broke the story of trainer Larry Nassar assaulting young female gymnasts.
Prior to seeing the trailer, 34 percent of YouGov Direct respondents said they were likely to see this harrowing documentary. But after viewing the trailer on the YouGov Direct App, 42 percent said they were now likely to see it.
The trailer seemed to resonate particularly with female viewers. 58 percent of YouGov Direct users who participate in trailer questions and identify as female said that they were likely to see this documentary after watching the trailer, compared with 36 percent of those who identify as male.
What made it such a popular trailer? The answer appears to be the documentary’s central story and themes. Over half of respondents (59%) said so when we asked them what they liked best about the trailer. The documentary has certainly been receiving praise from film film critics across the board for its sensitive but thorough handling of the scandal that shocked the US sporting world. Writing for the Hollywood Reporter, film critic Leslie Felperin says the powerful Netflix documentary ‘sticks the landing’. A further 28 percent of users said they liked the visual look of the documentary.
YouGov Direct also asks respondents to tell us how good or bad they think a movie will be, based on the trailer. Viewers awarded “Athlete A” a rating of 3.9, the highest rating given to a movie in this survey since early April. This is out of a possible 5.0 and compared to a median score of 3.5 for all trailers tested to date. Users gave the lowest score (3.0) this week to the other new Netflix release, Will Ferrell comedy “Eurovision: The Story of Fire Saga”.
Related:
- Airplane hijacking thriller ‘7500’ won the most attention this week
- Viewers crown “The King of Staten Island” the best trailer this week
- The trailer for feminist revenge fable “Judy & Punch” grabbed audiences’ attention this week
- Trailer for ‘The High Note’ hits with viewers this week
Image courtesy of Vertical Entertainment
Methodology: Data is based on 4,000 interviews, including a minimum of 400 responses for each movie trailer tested. Surveys were conducted online on June 25, 2020.
