At the time of its release, Avengers: Infinity War was the most anticipated film of the year. It was the beginning of the end for the MCU’s Infinity Saga, which began with Iron Man in 2008. When the trailer of the biggest crossover film in cinema history dropped, it broke many records.
The trailer earned a whopping 230 million views in a single day on YouTube, which was broken only by its follow-up film Avengers: Endgame, which clocked in 289 million views. Now, influencer Frank LaPenna, who is known for his sketches involving his character, ‘bubble-butt Frankie’ has broken the record of Marvel films. However, the influencer claims that he only earned a meager $1,900 for it.
The Hype Around Avengers: Infinity War
Prospects of a huge team-up event film started early in the MCU when Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury appeared in the post-credits scene of the Robert Downey Jr. starrer Iron Man. As multiple entries to the MCU began with solo films of Hulk, Thor, and Captain America, a team-up was eventually going to happen. Joss Whedon directed The Avengers in 2012 and teased the appearance of Thanos in the post-credits scene.
After the release of Avengers: Age of Ultron, Kevin Feige announced that the sequel to the film would be a two-part epic Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 and Part 2. He revealed that Captain America: The Winter Soldier directors Joe and Anthony Russo would be directing the films and that they would be shot back-to-back. The film was set to finally include Thanos as the primary antagonist and would take inspiration from the famed ‘The Infinity Gauntlet’ storyline from the comics.
Amidst the hype of seeing Thanos and most of the MCU characters in a single film, the trailer for the first part of the series Avengers: Infinity War was released. After being shown at the 2017 International Comic Con San Diego and the D23 Expo, the trailer was released online and earned over 230 million views in the first 24 hours, creating a new record. The record was only broken by the trailer of its follow-up film Avengers: Endgame.
How Did Frank LaPenna Break The Record Of Infinity War?
Since its debut in 2018, the trailer of Avengers; Infinity War right now has 260 million views on YouTube. Many videos have surpassed the view count, including a YouTube short by an emerging influencer Frank LaPenna.
LaPenna is a cinematographer, content creator, and influencer who is known as the green screenman. He went viral during the COVID-19 lockdown when he used a green screen during Zoom meetings to make creative backgrounds. He is also known for his sketches on social media, most of which include the character ‘bubble-butt Frankie’. The character sees Frankie LaPenna doing many antics while sporting an oversized rear.
The creator posted a video in August 2022, where he is in an MMA fight and gets knocked out instantly. Titled ‘World’s quickest knockout’, the YouTube short amassed over 390 million views, surpassing Avengers: Infinity War’s trailer view count. However, despite a large number of views, the creator claimed that he has earned little money from it. In a separate short, LaPenna mentioned that,
“I posted this video roughly 300 days ago on YouTube shorts. [It got] 1.2 million hours of watch time…that is fifty thousand days humans have spent watching this video…this video made me $1,900. Not even enough to pay rent on an apartment for a month. If you thought that us, short-form video creators were raking in millions of dollars from views, guess again! Because we ain’t!”
While Frank LaPenna’s video did go viral and broke the record for the trailer of Avengers: Infinity War, the views have not converted to money. However, Infinity War collected more than $2 billion at the global box office.
Source: YouTube
