How Much is Too Much to Reveal in a Film Trailer?

Picture it: you’ve just grabbed your buttery popcorn from the concession stand and you sit down, five minutes early to the movie you’ve been waiting to see all week. Energy is buzzing in the theater, and excitement builds as you get to sit and wait for the main event to show, but not before watching a few trailers for upcoming films. Trailers not only get us excited for new films but also for all the new films in the industry coming out in general. They are imperative to the marketing of a film and to building “hype” around a film. However, not all trailers are made the same. A bad trailer can ruin the reputation of a film before it even releases. By giving away too little information or misinformation about a film, the trailer can fail to hook people, or worse, set them up for disappointment. On the other hand, a trailer can also give away too much about a film, causing the audience to see no point in actually seeing the film itself. Why watch a two-hour-long story when you just got all the details in the two-minute trailer? That leads me to question: How much is too much to reveal in a trailer?

Recently, the “Wicked: For Good” trailer came out, showing off all the beautiful shots and musical performances that the cast and crew have been working on. At the same time, it revealed important plot points for the characters from the first film. Though the musical has been out for decades, new fans of the story may not know the fates of the characters (spoiler warning), Prince Fiero and Boq, who turn into the Scarecrow and the Tin Man from the original “Wizard of Oz” story. The trailer, however, clearly shows that this is the character’s fate. A lot of people have been upset at the fact that the trailer shows these plot points, as it ruins the surprise for anyone just now being introduced to the story. This is a bit of a special case, however, considering the content of these movies has been around and out for so long.

Another example of giving too much away in a trailer would be the “Deadpool 2” trailer. This trailer was criticized when it first came out for giving away too much of the story of the second film. Nonetheless, this film was still a hit at the box office and paved the way for the third film as well. Upon looking into this concept more, I found that there are some psychological benefits to revealing a bit more than expected in the trailers. The human brain naturally operates with risk aversion: a concept where people have the tendency to prefer the option where they know the outcome, over an option where there is an uncertain outcome. Some editors of these trailers keep this concept in mind. They try to give as much information as possible in hopes that the audience will choose their movie to watch over another because the audience knows they won’t be disappointed with the ending. This is also why people often choose to rewatch movies they’ve already seen, rather than take a chance on a new release.

Even with this concept in mind, film trailers can still hurt a film’s credibility by accidentally revealing information that can completely destroy a plot twist of a film, ultimately getting rid of any “twist” at all. For instance, in the trailer of the “Terminator II: Judgement Day”, it is revealed that the Terminator ended up becoming the good guy in this movie, and there was a new villain in the mix. This could have been a huge plot twist after the first film, but rather, audiences knew it before even sitting down for the movie. 

In my opinion, a good trailer should hook an audience without having to give away huge plot points of a film, even if it is a story that has been out for a long time. If there is nothing else that can be shown from your film that makes it interesting or eye-catching, I think there could be flaws in the film itself. Even with risk aversion in mind, I think these trailers that reveal too much ultimately hurt box office numbers as people no longer have any interest in seeing something they already saw in short form. Invest in a good editor, sound designer, or motion media artist to make the trailer eye-catching, but don’t give away the full plot.