NATO Wants Shorter Film Trailers with Fewer Spoilers

[A Marvel Fanboy]

National Association of Theater Owners Wants Shorter Film Trailers with Fewer Spoilers

Movie trailers have gotten longer – and more spoiler-happy – in recent years, as many a film buff has noticed (and complained about). Sometimes these theatrical previews include pivotal plot beats without the full context, like in the Ender’s Game trailer; other times, they include so many major story developments (see:the Carrie trailer) it can leave you feeling like you’ve just watched a truncated version of the movie.

Well, the National Association of Theater Owners (i.e. the other NATO) feels your pain, and is pushing for studios to cut down the length of movie trailers. The hope is that will result in more theatrically-released previews that better tease what a film has to offer – like the early Star Trek Into Darkness and Man of Steeltrailers (to use recent examples) – without giving away too many of the figurative cards in its hand, at the same time.

 

NATO wants the standard maximum running time for full-length movie trailers – including the exceptions to that policy (like the 3-minute R.I.P.D. trailer) – to be trimmed down from 2.5 minutes to two minutes flat, in order to cut down on both spoilers and the amount of time audiences have to spend waiting through trailers that are attached to the film they paid to see.

 

Edited May 29, 2013 by firedeep

[AniNate]

Hah, they think trailers are too long now? 

 

 

[ChD]

I don't know what they want... Something like this?"Man of Steel.This is a Superman Movie (TEXT comes on screen)

 

Coming 14/06" 

[ChD]

Oh god, just imagine how the trailer for Cloud Atlas would've looked like.

[Jack Nevada]

NATO? Shits about to go down

[A Marvel Fanboy]

The truth is, well, they want less time consumed between screenings, I guess ...

[Kvikk Lunsj]

I think TV spots are worst than trailers.

[Jack Nevada]

I like trailers, but it seems like my theater only has like three trailers that they play in front of every movie for two months

[AniNate]

Also of interest in that article is the proposal of no marketing of a film in a theater until four months before its release. That would mean they couldn't release any Thor or Hunger Games materials until July.

Edited May 29, 2013 by tribefan695

[Plain Old Tele]

Fewer spoilers?

 

A-fucking-MEN.

[John Marston]

Why do people act as if trailers having spoilers is a new thing? Hell back in the 70s and 80s trailers were probably worse in that area

[AniNate]

Fewer spoilers?

 

A-fucking-MEN.

 

I don't know how the heck you enforce that. It's the editing that matters most, not the runtime of the trailer.

 

Perhaps they could demand that studios only advertise footage from the first 2/3rds of the film, but wouldn't you first have to have a completed film to be able to make that judgment?

[CoolioD1]

The Forrest Gump trailer is the whole movie summarized in 4 minutes. It's the worst.

[cookie]

^On the subject of Tom Hanks movies Cast Away gave away its ending with the trailer.

Edited May 29, 2013 by C00k13

[Plain Old Tele]

^On the subject of Tom Hanks movies Cast Away gave away its ending with the trailer.

 

It wasn't really the ending, it was a spoiler for the last third of the movie. It would've been much more suspenseful had we not known whether or not he was going to make it off the island.

[Impact]

Awesome!

[Impact]

Older trailers are even worse-b movies really were the worse though hands down.

(I always make the note though that inspirational sports films tend to show the most-but those are kind of a different animal)

[The Dark Alfred]

Another field where people should taking masterclass lectures from Nolan.

[luna]

teaser trailers are always better than full length ones.

[lab276]

Why do people act as if trailers having spoilers is a new thing? Hell back in the 70s and 80s trailers were probably worse in that area

Who's acting like they're a new thing?