In a market where movies live or die by their opening weekend grosses, trailers play a larger role in the release of movies than they ever have.
It’s an extremely common complaint – and one I have made many times – that trailers give away far too much of the movie they are selling.
I got to thinking about this issue again while watching Wrath of the Titans, which is released this week. I wasn’t a fan of the first one (was anyone?) but I got mildly excited when I saw the monster-a-thon displayed in the film’s trailer.
Then I saw the movie.

Bad timing for the new Ben Stiller-Vince Vaughn-Jonah Hill movie, Neighborhood Watch.

The movie’s first teaser poster and teaser trailer, featuring the stars patrolling a neighborhood, have been removed from Florida theaters out of deference to the Trayvon Martin controversy.

Trailers have become a culture and an art form all to themselves. Being a true movie obsessive now means not only being up on films as soon as they come out, but trailers, too, and this practice has been greatly facilitated by the Internet. A certain kind of person will remember downloading the original “Phantom Menace” trailer in 1998 and then buying tickets for “Meet Joe Black” just to see it on the big screen. (Some of these people also may have worn matching T-shirts to this event and then left immediately after the 130-second clip was over.) The online release of a much-anticipated movie’s trailer has now become a major media event, as the viral frenzy last week over the trailer for Ridley Scott’s “Aliens” prequel “Prometheus” shows.

New trailers are dissected second-by-second for clues about the movie on online message boards and in fan communities across the Web. The “Titanic” rerelease — and the marketing around it — offers a rare opportunity to see directly how the trailer has evolved in the last decade and a half, along with the art of making big-budget movies.

Moviegoers will begin their Recall experience on Sunday, April 1, as Columbia Pictures debuts the trailer for the highly anticipated action thriller Total Recall during the NBA game between the Boston Celtics and the Miami Heat broadcast nationally on ABC, it was announced today by Marc Weinstock, president of Worldwide Marketing for Sony Pictures. Total […]

Classics are back! One Saturday each month we’ll be adding a slew of Classic Movie Trailers to the site for your nostalgic enjoyment. From historical black & whites, to outrageous eighties, it’s a grab-bag of ‘gone but not forgotten’ previews. Have a classic trailer request? Let us know in the comments! Here are the latest […]