Within the first 24 hours of the trailer for ‘Pixels‘ being released it had taken Sony’s top spot as their most viewed launch trailer of all time. The previous title holder was ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ with 22 million views. ‘Pixels’ tromped the number with an astounding 34.3 million views through its various outlets. Hell, it took ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ 72 hours to get to 40 million views. Who ever thought a film starring Adam Sandler would ever get this kind of attention again?

Apparently, that’s what a massive inclusion of 80’s video game characters will do for you.

To pull this off Sony went to great lengths to use every outfit that they had at their disposal. This is the most cohesive form of advertising that they have done to date and combined the outreach of: Sony Electronics, PlayStation, Crackle, and their retail stores. On top of that they used their billboard in Times Square to help push attention to the film. Not content to use their internal resources they also tapped the stars of the film to reach out to their own audiences as well. Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Ashley Benson, and Josh Gad all do have quite a following when put together.

If you’ve missed the trailer that has already had so many views you can check it out below!

I’ll be honest here I really didn’t think I would ever be interested in a film where Sandler played the lead character in again. It looks like all it took was some 80’s nostalgia to prove me wrong.

Fans of Ashley Benson may have noted that she doesn’t seem to have a major role in the trailer. Well, if you watch it slowly right around 1:38 there is a quick image featuring Benson and her video game counterpart.

In fact, if you look even closer it says to check out DojoQuest which is a downloadable game made for the film. Also this will lead you to a Tumblr called ‘I Love You Lady Lisa’ which is a slightly obcessive fan made site which is run by the character that Josh Gad plays in the film.

Here is the trailer for Dojo Quest if you want to get some gaming into your day.

Are you looking forward to checking out ‘Pixels’? What are your thoughts on the first trailer? Do you think the tie-in video game was a brilliant idea? Share your thoughts below!

Synopsis:

In Pixels, when intergalactic aliens misinterpret video-feeds of classic arcade games as a declaration of war against them, they attack the Earth, using the games as models for their various assaults. President Will Cooper (James) has to call on his childhood best friend, ’80s video game champion Sam Brenner (Sandler), now a home theater installer, to lead a team of old-school arcaders (Dinklage and Gad) to defeat the aliens and save the planet. Monaghan plays the team’s unique weapons specialist. The action-comedy is directed by Chris Columbus from a story by Tim Herlihy and a screenplay by Tim Herlihy and Timothy Dowling, based on the original short film of the same name by Patrick Jean.

Sources: Cinema Blend, Comic Book Movie