Spider-Man: Homecoming

Trailer Talk: Are Studios Giving Away Too Much In Their Marketing For Films?

This is an epidemic that needs a cure fast. The marketing for films these days is absurd with the amount of footage they show in their trailers. Lets take Spider-Man: Homecoming for example. If you include the US domestic trailers, international trailers, plus all the TV spots and exclusive clips,  that’s nearly 35 minutes of footage alone. Now i’m fully aware that not all of that will be included in the final film, but at what point do you stop marketing an already hyped film?

Spider-Man: Homecoming is the most anticipated film from Sony in over a decade. Everyone wants to see how the character will be handled after the previous attempts to bring the web slinger back to the big screen. Marvel have creative control of the character, for now, but what happens when that contract ends? Do we really need to see nearly 1/3 of the film in trailers? Just so Sony can say “hey, look at what we have done, are you excited now?”. Captain America: Civil War already proved to the fans that Spider-Man was on track to be a big hit.

For those who don’t already know, there is a shot in the trailer where you see both Iron Man and Spider-Man flying, and swinging through Queens together. That shot is not in the final film. It was a shot that had the internet buzzing after it’s release, without going into too much detail about it, head on over to /Film to read the article. This isn’t the first time that a money shot from a trailer hasn’t appeared in the final film either. One of the best scenes from the Rogue One trailers didn’t even make the final cut. So not only are studios giving us too much footage in trailers, they also include money shots that don’t even make the final cut of the film, and are just put there to give us a hard on.Spider-ManAlas, it’s not just Spider-Man that has been bitten by an over-marketing bug. Transformers: The Last Knight has had the same problem. The only difference is, in all of their trailers for the film, we have had 3 different storylines forced down our throat. There was nearly 25 mins of footage shown between the teaser trailer, and the film coming out. If you need to sell a billion dollar franchise to people 5 films in, then you clearly have no faith in your material.

Studios should take a note out of the 90’s “how to market your films and put out trailers” handbook. If you go back to blockbuster films like Independence Day, you will find that there wasn’t an over saturation of teasers, official trailers, and clips. It seems as though the only films we aren’t seeing trailer after trailer, or clip after clip for are films that were made by either Christopher Nolan or J.J Abrams. Dunkirk has been a ghost on the marketing front, and lets not forget about 10 Cloverfield Lane.

Long gone are the days where we can go and see a movie and be mystified by what we are going to see. In some cases, I actually try and recall scenes from a trailer, just to know whether or not a character is going to die in upcoming scenes. That to me ruins the fun of going to see a film.

What do you think of the marketing for films these days? Hit us up in the comments with your thoughts.

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