movie trailer lengths of modern films

[jefferiestubes8]

These days we have Hollywood's marketing machines releasing teaser trailers of 15-30 seconds many months before a film's release date.

sometimes 2 or 3 teasers come out and then 2 trailers and an International trailer comes out. It used to be 1 minute or so from my memory was the norm.
For International trailers they sometimes are 3 minutes such as the Prometheus International trailer that came out last week which is full of spoilers.

less than 2 minutes and 30 seconds, the maximum length allowed by the MPAA.
Each studio or distributor is allowed to exceed this time limit once a year, if they feel it is necessary for a particular film.

according to Wikipedia.
I was not aware of that but I feel that 1 minute is enough. It's like 2 30-second commercials. If a marketing department can't sell a film in 60 seconds then they are doing something wrong.
A lot of the teasers are 1 minute of 1:10 including all the corporate distributors and film company logos.

Most trailers have a three-act structure similar to a full feature-length film.

I feel this is totally unnecessary. If a marketing department can't think up an idea to sell a film they don't need to give away the whole story. The audience needs to know what genre the film is, who stars in it, the title, and maybe half the plot NOT the whole plot.
I like watching movie trailers on DVD of older films from 1980s because they are so different from today's trailers.
With comedy's sometimes the marketing department has to save a film since it's awful and puts all the best jokes in the trailer and then people go see it and it's a bad movie with a few good jokes.
With some action films they put so much of the good stuff in the trailer these days (just out of order of the actual plot) that I feel it really spoils it. I can't be alone on this thinking.

What are your opinions on modern movie trailers lengths and how much of the plot they show? Any genre including feature documentary.


a related thread about movie trailers and spoilers specifically:
Movie Trailers and Spoilers

 

[Trekker4747]

Disturbingly enough we actually live in a world where trailers have trailers.

 

[od0_ital]

^

The Avengers was awful - a ten second tease for the thirty second trailer that had an extended sixty second version online!

 

[Trekker4747]

Couple of weeks ago there was an internet video released that was a trailer for the Total Recall remake's trailer. In the trailer it actually said "This Sunday... See the exclusive trailer for Total Recall!" or something along those lines.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

Couple of weeks ago there was an internet video released that was a trailer for the Total Recall remake's trailer. In the trailer it actually said "This Sunday... See the exclusive trailer for Total Recall!" or something along those lines.

Yes all part of a marketing campaign to sustain interest. Those teasers get people interested to talk about the trailer.

I saw a great article about The Hunger Games having a $45 million marketing budget and a staff of 21 to market the film. The marketing planning started in Spring 2009!
Marketing being the overall blanket rather than just the advertising campaign.
See what in 1998-1999 The Blair Witch Project did with Internet marketing? That film was the most successful independent film of all time.

I remember Die Hard: With a Vengeance (1995) had posters on NYC bus sides in December 1994 for a film releasing 6 months later. Sometimes it's just posters but these days the trailers are often released 6-8 months before the film and specific target dates are chosen 2 years in advance of a theatrical release date.

 

[Trekker4747]

Teasers and trailers make sense.

This was a trailer not advertising the movie but advertising the release of the trailer!

 

[od0_ital]

^

Saw a couple of those for Prometheus via YouTube, with the stars from the movie invitin' folks to check out the trailer at a later date, with a brief action-y clip of the movie at the end.