Trailers are made to help the public decide if they will be interested in watching the movie right? But is this the only purpose of a movie trailer?
A movie trailer is supposed to give you an idea of what you are getting into if you decide to watch the movie. There are currently two types of movie trailers, the teaser trailer which teases you a little bit about the movie or series. The content of this trailer doesn’t reveal a lot of details, but it should be interesting enough to get your attention. The second type of movie trailer is what we call the normal trailer which in many cases is used multiple times during the promotional campaign for the movie. There are usually two trailers. The first trailer reveals only a little detail about the story. The second trailer should be even more captivating than the teaser and the first trailer. It should be compelling enough to convince viewers who are still indecisive. Basically, many people make up their minds whether they will spare their time to watch the movie after viewing the first trailer.
So far, with the information, we have told you everything is supposed to be fine, and there should be no issues with trailers right? Movie trailers should help the public decide what to watch. However, it is unfortunate that these days watching a trailer is not sufficient to make that decision. They are simply not serving their purpose. Why is this happening? I don’t know what is happening with the divisions that create trailers these days but there are many issues with the recent trailers been released.
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What is happening?
Let’s start with the movie trailers that reveal the main story directly. If you already know what is going to happen after watching the trailer then what is the point of seeing the movie? Also, it is not a good idea to show the third act of the movie. As it seems, the production crew who makes trailers are a separate group who have no idea about the movie’s storyline. There are trailers that don’t show the essence of the movie which can mislead the public to have a wrong impression of the movie; this can make people overlook the movie when it is released subsequently causing it to perform poorly in the box office.
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Disappointments
So far we have been discussing bad trailers, now let’s talk about the trailers that look good. These are the trailers that can convince a big part of the audience to watch the movie which ends up falling short of expectations. It turns out that the movie is not as thrilling as it seemed in the trailer. In this case, the trailer served its purpose and the public was hyped to see the movie, but the content that was delivered was not satisfactory. This is our current situation, watching a trailer is not enough to decide whether the movie or series will be worth your time.
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What to do?
Feedback from the public has become important after a movie has been released. It is even more important that moviegoers should do some research in addition to watching the trailers. It is easy to get feedback about movies you are interested in watching from social media. However, there will be some fake stories online. Don’t be too hasty to believe the first story that trends on the internet about a movie. So, you need to keep an open mind, compare the social media feedback with the movie trailer you have watched to help you make a final decision.
Hope this was an interesting read for you. Many thanks for visiting this page. Feel free to leave your thoughts and feedback in the comment section below.
Years ago i would look forward to a movie trailer, they used to captivate you and leave you hooked as what could possibly happen? How will the story unfold? Or even…Whats the story?!!! :O
But lately as you mentioned…they suck!
I realized (even more after reading your post) that i haven’t watched a lot of movies due to trailers revealing the whole plot, or just plainly showing random clips that make no sense and i do not feel like watching.
Forget people that share spoilers when the official trailer does more than that..they ruin the movie 🙁
I feel like i’m ranting 😉 I will try to submit my opinion when possible..maybe someday whomever makes the trailers can make a change?
Thanks for the post, it was interesting to think about why movie trailers trigger me nowadays.
Hi Anne,
I understand what you mean. I hope it will change at some point. I like what Netflix is doing. They drop new films that don’t necessarily have a marketing promotion for trailers and you can watch it right away. It shows some highlights (like a trailer) at the beginning along with a short description. I have seen some interesting movies this way that were better than some in theaters.
I agree that sometimes trailers can be a bit tricky in making movies appear very different than you expect them to be. Thankfully, the investment we put into watching a movie is not so great. Thanks for the thought-provoking article!
Hi Christen,
It really depends. If you are on your own it may not cost you much. But if you go with your whole family and friends, believe me between the tickets and the food you will definitely spend some significant amount of money (some families are not able to afford it).
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts!
Very interesting post and controversial I think. Like you mentioned, I think everyone hates trailers that give away the whole movie, ie. spoilers and the conclusion. Like what is the point? Especially a death of some character. I think captivating trailers are ones that yes tell us what we are getting into but still leave us suspenseful and kind of in the dark with what is going on or what is going to happen. I have seen so many trailers (not teasers) that don’t give away the full plot of the movie so you are left wondering about the main idea of the movie which I think this is good and suspensful.
Hi Rob,
I am glad you enjoyed it and thanks a lot for sharing your thoughts on this topic.