Remember back in May when everyone was whining that we STILL didn't have a trailer? Or in October when everyone said "The movie's 2 months away why is Disney being so SLOW with the publicity?"
I think they've done a pretty wonderful job with it. Instead of going the Les Mis route, which was "Start early and just keep throwing things out every two weeks to remind people that THIS MOVIE WILL BE HUGE," Disney went with the slow and steady strategy, ultimately building to a big publicity push towards the end.
They waited about 5 months before the release to give us a 100 second teaser. Then they waited another 2 1/2 months to give us a "Making of Featurette," and then it was another 2 weeks (about 7 weeks before the release) until we got a legitimate trailer. All the while building up anticipation and making us savor every little piece of the film they were willing to give us. Now, with the cast on every talk show and commercials flooding our TV's (though, if you notice, the commercials only differ from each other slightly. Every time they say it's a "New trailer" it's either the same music to a few new clips or the same clips to new music), it feels like a great number of people, not just the die-hard fans of the stage show, are legitimately excited for the movie.
A great many on here were nervous that Disney wasn't going to promote this movie at all. I think it's safe to say that they promoted this movie better than any other Hollywood studio could have.
"Sing the words, Patti!!!!" Stephen Sondheim to Patti LuPone.