The Function of a Trailer

[sKorpia]

I always thought the main purpose of showing a trailer was to get people into the theatre and there was nothing above and beyond the marketing tactic. But increasingly people are speaking ill of a movie that isn't even out based solely on the trailer. Wouldn't it make more sense to form a judgment at least after the initial rush of people?

When did a movie trailer become a stand-in for the movie itself? Or rather, has it? And why or why not?

[JDuncan]

A trailer is a reflection of the movie it's advertised. If the trailer shows the movie has a horrible premise or bad acting its a good bet that the movie will too. The function of the trailer is to advertise the movie. Bad trailers are the ones that are basically a 3 minute synopsis of the film.

[sKorpia]

I'm not sure if anyone else would agree with me, but I've been detecting a shift in trailers. Maybe it's just because I've started noticing whereas I had not before.

For example, the trailer for About A Boy gave me the impression that the film was an English take-off of Big Daddy, using a little boy (3 years old or so) to score dates, etc. Naturally, I didn't watch the film in theatres. But one of my friends rented it for a girls' night out and I discovered that the film was actually more thoughtful than I had originally given it credit for. Whether or not this was an intentional misleading, I cannot say. Nevertheless, I had been mislead as to the true story of the film. I was rather surprised to find an approximately 11 year old boy and a coming-of-age story (but not for the boy).

I also have the suspicion that Pixar films are intentionally playing with our minds now. The fart joke in the Finding Nemo commercials and trailers should make that perfectly clear. And the fart joke alone caused a mini-uproar among people who could not believe that Pixar would resort to such "crude" humor. (Dude, everyone farts. Get over it.)

And now the Hulk trailers seem to depict an action-adventure popcorn flick along the lines of Charlie's Angels or 2 Fast 2 Furious. However, early buzz from E&R indicates a more emotional film, which would fall in line better with Ang Lee's previous work than a popcorn flick. My only explanation so far for how the trailer has been conceived would be that it is a marketing tool. Big action films seem to draw the masses to the theatre, at least for the first weekend (see 2 Fast beating Nemo for a week even though we know which is the far superior film) so to market Hulk as action is merely to draw in people.

Are these trailers true representations of the film? Were they ever supposed to be? Or are people just playing with our heads?

[Lachesis]

I may sound cynical, but sex, violence, and gross-out jokes are often what get your young male audience into the theaters. Lots of movies are dumbed down in the trailers, or look completely different from how they really are. It's really hard to tell sometimes if they actually have any substance behind the schizo editing and the bad rock music.