Photo by Julian Jensen, via flickr
Chris Santiago/Contributing Writer
Lately, there’s been a trend of superhero/action movie trailers that seem to be released one after another.
Upcoming films such as “The Amazing Spider-Man 2,” “X-Men: Days of Future Past,” “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” the new reboot of the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” “Transformers: Age of Extinction,” and the list goes on. And it brought up a couple of questions to me: ‘Is there such a thing as too many trailers for a movie release?’ and ‘Can too many trailers actually ruin the experience of going to see the movie?’
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has four trailers out that have been released all within a month and a half span. To fanatics, such as me, that isn’t such a bad thing because it only builds up our anticipation higher than ever. However, to just regular movie goers, that could potentially have the opposite effect on them.
I’ve been hearing conversations around campus that go as such: “Did you see the new Spider-Man trailer?” “There’s another one? All this is making me not want to see it now.” But, then I hear conversations that go as such: “Did you see the new X-Men trailer?” “Yes. It looks so good. I can’t wait to see it.” It’s conversations like that that make me realize that maybe a movie production releasing too many trailers could be damaging their chances at making a very high profit off of their film’s release date.
For me, it’s Captain America. When I first saw the trailer, I’m not going to lie, I was extremely excited because I’ve always liked the concept of the Winter Soldier. But now, because of the numerous trailers and countless TV spots being released, I’ve lost all my excitement to go see it and now have no interest in it anymore. I think it’s because of the overexposure I’ve had to these upcoming films that I am not as excited as I used to be for them.
The only reason I’m still excited as ever to see the new Amazing Spider-Man movie is because I’ve been a Spidey fanatic since I was a child due to the old animated series that was airing during the ‘90s (yes, I had a childhood.)
Other upcoming superhero/action movies that are releasing their trailers the right way are “X-Men: Days of Future Past,” “Guardians of the Galaxy” and the newly rebooted Godzilla. For X-Men, only two trailers have been released with a good amount of months in between them and that is how it should be done. It builds the higher anticipation of the crowd craving more footage and information as to what will happen in the film while keeping the plot and other juicy information hidden enough to make the crowd impatient, but more satisfied with the ending result.
The same goes for “Godzilla and Guardians of the Galaxy;” each have released less trailers and have promoted more on social media on each of their respected Facebook and Twitter pages for their movie release, and even that has proven to be a much more effective method at keeping the audience in suspense and on their toes for the film’s release date.
I’m sure that regardless of the amount of trailers that are released, people will still be coming in to the premieres. However, I wouldn’t hold my breath on the audience being as excited or surprised at the plot twists or plot reveals during the film.
You can sure as heck expect me to be that guy that’ll still jump out of his seat at “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” premiere, but, from experience and what I’ve been hearing, I can’t say the same for others. Hopefully movie producers will think a bit more before planning on releasing so many trailers, for the consequences could lead to a not-so-great release.
life@fiusm.com
About Post Author
