A test screening of trailers for this year’s most anticipated family films – from Mulan to Peter Rabbit 2 – reveals what kids really want to see at cinemas
I knew that Sonic the Hedgehog would be a hit film long before it came out, because I have a secret weapon: a five-year-old. My son latched on to the Sonic
trailer – the updated one, not the disastrous one – the instant he saw it, and we watched it over and over (and over) for months. He made me act it out. He asked for Sonic-themed birthday presents. He loved the trailer so much that, when we went to see the film, he was palpably disappointed that it didn’t contain the cover version of Blitzkrieg Bop used in the trailer. It was obvious from seeing the trailer that Sonic would be a hit.
This got me thinking. Can I use my five-year-old (and, where possible, my two-year-old) to predict the success of a film based on its trailer? This morning during breakfast, I made them sit and watch a batch, in the hope that one of them would be the next Sonic the Hedgehog. Here are my findings.