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I have had a special request to review the trailer to the forthcoming Warcraft Movie from Legendary Pictures. I played World of Warcraft fairly seriously from pre-release in November 2004 through August 2005 when I started backing off the game. I kept my account active for years but rarely played post August 2006. I have a working familiarity with the game but cannot remember all the details. I have a brother who has the ability to recite the details of every non-consequential NPC in the game.
The first trailer for Warcraft went live just over 5 months ago, so there has been some wait for a second trailer. I find that in itself interesting. Typically for trailers you want to have between 12 and 18 weeks between the release of trailers. Legendary (Universal) has gone 23 weeks, by waiting so long the interest in the film has waned dramatically, one polling organization suggests it dropped from a high of 15th to 77th. That's a drastic drop. If you move back in time to week 18 the movie is roughly 50th. So there is no momentum for this movie at the current time.
In watching the trailer as a whole two key things came to mind. First is who is the audience for this trailer and second it is not a well made trailer.
In a typical cycle of trailers the first trailer provides an introduction to the primary characters and story for the general public. The second trailer builds from the first trailer but usually is a bit more focused on the fan base who knows more about the film. A third trailer is supposed to get everyone excited to go spend money.
The first Warcraft trailer was an above average trailer in the fact it introduced the wide audience to the background of the movie and the primary characters. The second trailer is supposed to build off that, it failed miserably. Remember that 23 week gap, well that is part of the problem. The other problem is that after going back and rewatching the first trailer and the second trailer back to back as someone who doesn't read any WoW sites even monthly any more you are left wondering if these two trailers are for the same movie.
I am left to assume that this trailer was directly aimed at those players with an above passing understanding of the storylines in the game, which isn't me. I just started zoning out.
The second problem from the trailer is it simply is not a well put together trailer. It is hard to actually say this and that and maybe this are the reasons it doesn't work, but rather I'll just go with the fact the trailer lacks flow and continuity coupled with the electronica music in the background make the trailer to disjointed to follow.
As a potential paying customer to whom the film is being marketed to, I have no clue what the film is about, who the film is about, and why I should fork over $16.50 to go see it. And that's the problem, this trailer has not changed the tracking numbers on the film, it is still in the $35 M USD opening Range and $75 M USD total domestic range. For a film with $100 budget that is not a good sign for a film that has 8 million regular players.
As an analyst you start to wonder with such bad tracking numbers if Universal is considering delaying the film and reworking parts of the film.
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