Commentary

Just an Online Minute... Movie Trailers Online

The countdown to the Oscars is on, which makes it a good time to talk about movie advertising and where the Internet fits into the picture. Interestingly enough, the web seems to be a great vehicle for attracting visitors to movie trailers.

Nielsen//NetRatings today reports that surfers flocked to movie websites at home during the week ending March 17 to view exclusive Web trailers of movies which are set to debut this spring.

Traffic to StarWars.com jumped 97 percent to 315,000 surfers. The online trailer featuring "Episode II, Attack of the Clones," which is set to debut in theatres on May 16, was one of the top pages visited, attracting 31 percent of the site's audience. SonyPictures.com drew 286,000 Web surfers, rising 75 percent from the week prior.

Seventeen percent of the visitors to SonyPictures.com accessed news and information on the feature film "Resident Evil," which opened in theatres on March 15, while 15 percent logged on to pages featuring exclusive Web trailers for the "Spider-Man" movie which debuts on May 3. Rounding out the list, ET20.com grew 73 percent in traffic as 255,000 surfers logged on for the latest information on the 20th anniversary and March 22 re-release of "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial."

"Movie trailer distribution has become an online commodity for the entertainment industry. For example, not only is the new 'Spider-Man' trailer privy to Web viewers first, but the large versions of the four 'Star Wars' trailers are only available to consumers who purchase QuickTime Pro," said Jarvis Mak, senior Internet media analyst at NetRatings. "Hollywood continues to play a growing role in contributing to the premium online content puzzle."

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