The Acolyte has been declared as record-breaking by Lucasfilm. Unfortunately for the studio, and for Disney, these are not the records they were looking for.
The Acolyte is the next big Disney+ Star Wars live action show with eight episodes ready to release over June and July. Created and crafted by Leslye Headland (previously most well-known for being personal assistant to Harvey Weinstein), The Acolyte takes place in an era of Star Wars lore known as The High Republic. But potential fans of Star Wars don’t seem to high on this next effort out of Lucasfilm judging by the response on YouTube.
As of 10:00 AM ET on March 25th, 2024, The Acolyte trailer had managed to earn 177,000 likes on YouTube but was dwarfed by dislikes. More than half-a-million people have now “disliked” the trailer with a ratio that could put the video in contention with some of the most prolific ratios in the history of the platform. With only five days of public availability, there’s also no guarantee that this number will stay where it is. In fact, this could get far worse.
Part of Lucasfilm’s marketing efforts has been to highlight viewership of the trailer rather than the reception.
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However, even this effort has hit a snag. According to research performed by entertainment pundits and journalists at Echo Base Network, as well as financial analyst Valliant Renegade, The Mandalorian Season Three trailer had higher views than The Acolyte… and without this sort of backlash. But what appears to be happening is that Lucasfilm is designating carefully that The Acolyte has broken digital-only 24 hour records… as opposed to actual 24 hours viewership records. This is accomplished by not comparing The Acolyte trailer to The Mandalorian Season Three trailer with its television ad viewership numbers. The Acolyte trailer was not shown on television during its first 24 hours as part of any paid commercial program whereas The Mandalorian Season Three trailer was.
The trailer for the third season of Lucasfilm’s The Mandalorian drew a record 83.5 million views in its first 24 hours after premiering Jan. 16 during the NFL wild card playoff game.
— Pamela McClintock, THR
Unfortunately for Disney’s Star Wars, that means that The Acolyte hasn’t broken any significant viewership records for its trailer. Perhaps even more unfortunately, the record it likely will break for the most disliked Star Wars trailer under Kathleen Kennedy… is in significant; nor is it convoluted. For a Walt Disney Company attempting to fend off criticisms that it has lost Main Street audiences, this is yet another devastating blow to its public perception.
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That’s considering that YouTube hid the dislikes. If they were visible it would’ve been even worse. Now I hope that more normies will abandon this broken franchise.