Dunkirk led the way in a week filled with social media buzz to kick off the summer movie season. Christopher Nolan’s upcoming epic, based on the harrowing World War II evacuation mission off the coast of France, has not revealed much of its actual content or character details but just dropped the final trailer. Nolan has said that Dunkirk’s plot structure will be comprised of three different points-of-view based on the characters’ roles in the battle.
It’s already confirmed that Dunkirk is rated PG-13, which gives it a great chance of drawing in a wide audience. But more importantly, it’s Christopher Nolan, whose films have grown to the point of practically becoming events. Dunkirk will be no exception, and the film’s newest trailer helped it rise to the top of the social media consciousness last week.
As reported by Variety on Monday, Dunkirk dominated social media buzz last week based on data gathered by media analytics firm comScore. The film generated about 52,000 of what comScore terms “new conversations.” In total, Dunkirk has generated over 808,000 new conversations, third on comScore’s cumulative chart behind Star Wars: The Last Jedi (1.67 million) and Spider-Man: Homecoming (1.61 million).
Comparatively, Wonder Woman came in second with 28,000 new conversations, while Alien: Covenant generated 25,000. The long-awaited adaptation of The Dark Tower finally revealed its first trailer, earning it 24,000 new conversations of its own. Star Wars is Star Wars, so The Last Jedi checked in with 22,000 new conversations in the wake of Star Wars Day and a new video of Rian Johnson with John Williams.
There are plenty of obvious reasons why Dunkirk would garner so much more buzz than the average war movie. The promise of another unique storytelling style from Nolan, to go with his reliably spectacular visuals and relentless suspense, has potential to make Nolan’s account of the Battle of Dunkirk the kind of transcendent experience that the director is capable of achieving.
Dunkirk may be a Nolan creation, but it’s also the director’s first attempt at a war epic with some real, serious history behind it. The idea of non-linear storytelling and clever editing also likely wouldn’t change the minds of those who ascribe to common Nolan criticisms. The PG-13 rating could also be a concern for a film about war. But Nolan is arguably the biggest director in Hollywood right now and Dunkirk appears to be as intense as anything he’s ever made, so don’t expect the director and his films to stop generating buzz any time soon.
Next: Dunkirk Final Trailer: Time Is Running Out
Source: Variety
