Study: Half of Moviegoers Think Trailers Give Away All the Best Scenes

The Hollywood Reporter ^ | May 1, 2013 | Rebecca Ford

[EveningStar]

For the past several months, trailers for this summer's most anticipated films have been hitting the web on a nearly daily basis.

But the trailers aimed at getting moviegoers excited for these big-budget releases may be showing off a bit too much.

[T. P. Pole]

Lately I have observed that many 90-120 minute movies would have been a really good 22 minute TV show. It is as if they have one good idea, but not the several it takes to fill the time. When you have only one good idea, the trailer is bound to give away the whole plot.

The opposite is TV shows like the Simpsons, which can have three fully developed plot ideas in a single 22 minute show, but really could have had their own episode each.

It’s like “hey I have a really good idea for a scene” and that gets stretched into a whole movie.

[llmc1]

I used to look forward to the trailers when they’d show about three per film. Now I just enter the theater about 20 minutes after the “start” time to avoid them.

[EricT.]

The freak gasoline fight accident was the funniest part.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98AzJT8FlmY

[leapfrog0202]

I agree. Once you get there you find out that only good stuff was in the trailers. It makes me feel ripped off to go see a good comedy or something and realize I saw all the funny things already.

[INVAR]

Not as badly as say Iron Man 3 did.

The trailer did however make it easier for my wife and I to guesstimate some key twists in the plot, but not the whole enchilada. There’s still just enough mystery to make the really big reveal a genuine surprise.

Good movie by the way.

if you like The Island w/Ewan McGregor - you will like Oblivion.

[Mount Athos]

I was stuck watching that movie on a very long flight, somehow it was the perfect entertainment at the time. I’m sure the drinks helped.

[Inyo-Mono]

One of my favorite trailers, “Tombstone”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTWYKf5hXIg

[PLMerite]

What’s really sad is when the editing (especially dialog) in the trailer is better than in the actual movie.

[ConjunctionJunction]

Thanks! I did like “The Island”.

[Vince Ferrer]

The Comedian trailer

[discostu]

Eh it’s just whining. Being a big rewatcher I think surprises are way over valued by the industry. If your movie can’t stand up once if the “surprise” is known before the movie then your movie can’t stand up. Psycho is just as good a movie once if you know Norman is his mother. Sixth Sense is just as good a movie if you know Bruce Willis is dead. And The Village is just as pathetically boring if you know it’s not in the 19th century.

[discostu]

Part of that is the nature of the pitch session. Movies and books are basically sold on no more than 3 sentences, often times just one. It’s hard to boil a 2 hour plot down to 3 sentences, one good scene is easy. It’s also why knockoffs get made so much, “Die Hard in the White House” is an easy single sentence that tells a lot and is easy to grasp... and describes two movies this year (one out already one coming) so apparently sells well.

[Political Junkie Too]

I'm guessing that, these days, it isn't a question about people seeing the movie, it's a question of getting people to see it in a theater. Therefore, they need to show big, loud, explosive scenes that feel larger than it would in your living room, so you'd want to see it at the theater.

-PJ

[Vince Ferrer]

Here is my favorite trailer, but it is for a video game, not a movie. Everything in the trailer references something important about the game, but in a context that doesn't give too much away either. And it stands by itself as an interesting piece of work.

Deus Ex trailer

[dr_lew]

They certainly did with Zoolander. The trailer contained hilarious parts of three scenes I think. So you’re thinking “Should be a very funny movie”, but the 1:30 or whatever that was in the trailer was the only funny 1:30 in the entire movie.!

You know, for years I liked that scene where Al Pacino says "No, you're out of order, you're out of order!" in Justice For All. I finally watched the whole thing on TV and this came at the very end, and it was a real letdown after the long wait.

So, I have elevated this idea to a general principle, and content myself with trailers. Only trouble is you have to see a movie once in a while to see the trailers! Unfortunately the last movie I saw in a theater was John Carter of Mars. Maybe that will be on my tombstone, "Last movie he saw ..."

[ShasheMac]

Back in 1980, when the movie “First Family” with Bob Newhart opened, the previews showed three very funny scenes. You guessed it, those were the only funny scenes in the movie.

[rabidralph]

A lot of trailers I’ve seen lately give the whole story. But they have gotten away from juxtaposing two scenes that have nothing to do with each other and making them seem as though a lead character got blown up during the movie.

[SJSAMPLE]

EVERY
ADAM
SANDLER
MOVIE

EVER

[INVAR]

The absolutely WORST trailer I saw that RUINED the entire movie - (because we saw almost all of the key scenes in the trailers) - was Prometheus.

Totally ruined the movie because the trailers that were wall-to-wall on the net, on TV and at the theaters - showed EVERYTHING - including the climax scene at the end. There was NOTHING left to surprise the audience. I heard several remark as the theater was emptying - “That sucked - they showed the whole freaking movie in the trailer - I coulda saved twelve bucks”.

The ONLY thing they did not show in the trailer - was the pre-Alien xenomorph busting out of the Engineer’s body in the postscript. But everything else of key importance was splashed out well in advance of the release.

Ridley Scott must be brain damaged these days.

[NELSON111]

>>>When I see most movie trailers, I can say to myself: "Well, there is the whole movie right there."

Especially in really bad comedies. Chances are every funny scene is in the trailer.