Trailers. Coming attractions. Previews. Back in the day, they were just that: previews. They would show you what the story was about and who was in it, hoping it would entice you to see the film. Trailers today, however, have turned into a bigger fanfare that seems to be changing the way they get people to the theaters.
To be frank, many trailers give away the entire plot of the movie. In school, those who study cinema have been taught there are only a couple basic plotlines every story follows. The differences in these stories come from characters, settings, dialogue and other literary or cinematic elements. So it is easy for us to piece together movies as is, especially with specific genres like romantic comedies or war dramas. However, with the amount a trailer gives away nowadays, you can make a pretty good call about what the movie is about from the two minutes on YouTube you spend watching the trailer.
But besides plot, trailers are going too far to highlight what makes them good or special. Have you ever noticed that a comedy’s most hilarious line will be highlighted in a trailer? Or a romance’s most passionate kiss? Or an action movie’s best explosion? Trailers are always trying to put a movie’s best foot forward, but when a trailer highlights all the good that a movie has, what is left for the viewers to enjoy? A lot of times, when trailers give away so much, there is nothing new for viewers to savor or enjoy when they actually see the movie.
It’s easy to see why movies have resorted to this overexposed form of advertising. We live in a day and age where getting TV and movies is simpler than ever. All we have to do is have a Hulu or Netflix or HBO GO account and we have access to numerous forms of entertainment we can watch on our own time. With that kind of control, why would we endure the extra money and effort it takes to see a movie in the theaters? We can just wait until it comes out on Redbox.
Advertisers, as a result, compensate with the amount of content they reveal in their trailers. Trailers now function as self-contained pictures, bringing viewers through the nuisances of the movies, giving you a hearty spoonful of what to expect with that particular movie. They play on the things that will bring the movie the most hype — whether that be a gag, a star or a fan base that could help the film have that much more success.
For me, it ruins the experience. I have to admit — I binge on trailers like other people binge on “Breaking Bad” or “The Walking Dead” on Netflix. I could watch trailers for hours. If the trailer shows me enough to peak my interest, I am sold. But more often than not, the trailer acts as a recap more than a preview and my interest is lost after those two minutes.
But there is hope. Some advertisers are getting back the true meaning of a preview. “Cabin in the Wood” hinted at its plot but hid its most exciting twist, “The Conjuring” showed its story but did not give its best scares, and the trailers for both “The Hunger Games” and “Catching Fire” has kept audiences in the dark of what is to come inside the arena. Some advertisers still know how to make a solid preview. While it seems like it would be more efficient to build an action-packed trailer to entice viewers, sometimes that element of surprise is the best weapon to reel them in.