10 Most Viewed Movie Trailers In First 24 Hours Of Release

5. It Teaser– 197 Million Views

It’s Chapter 1 teaser, based on Stephen King's 1986 horror novel, surprised many with how successful it would subsequently become, scoring the enormous 197 million views figure a day after it was released. It set a record at the time for trailer views within the first 24 hours, surpassing the previous record holder The Fate of the Furious. It quickly became the No. 1 trending video on YouTube and Pennywise trended throughout Twitter. Warner Bros. were ecstatic with the success of it, releasing a celebratory press release afterwards.

The creepiness of Pennywise luring children into his traps (coulrophobia/fear of clowns has never been more prominent than in this trailer), the eerie music scoring it, the haunting despair of small town Derry, the first reveal of The Losers Club (featuring Stranger Things actor Finn Wolfhard) and the chilling visual images of the floating paper boat and the red balloon propelled this teaser to go viral, particularly the moment at 2:16 where Bill Denbrough screams and Pennywise maniacally lunges for him, which created plenty of GIFs and memes online.

The teaser was helped by a savvy marketing campaign that included an array of missing person posters of children within the Derry/Maine area from the film. The film would end up becoming the fifth-highest-grossing R-rated film of all time, grossing over $701 million worldwide.