The Evolution of Movie Trailers | From Nostalgic VO to Spoilers & Trailerception
The Evolution of Movie Trailers
Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re exploring the evolution of movie trailers.
In 1913, Loew’s Theatres founder Marcus Loew hired journalist Nils Granlund as a publicity agent. After working on the touring vaudeville show, “Hanky Panky,” he was subsequently promoted to publicity manager of Loew’s theater chain. Granlund had the innovative idea to shoot rehearsal footage for a musical called “The Pleasure Seekers,” producing the first of many promotional films. These promos were initially played after movies, trailing them. Although they’re now played before feature presentations, the word “trailer” stuck. Today, studios often collaborate with marketing agencies like Trailer Park Group to produce previews. Between the 1920s and the late 50s, though, most movie trailers came from the National Screen Service, which Herman Robbins founded. NSS was also responsible for many movie posters from Hollywood’s Golden Age.
While NSS had a monopoly on the trailer business, studios eventually took more control. In the 1950s, publicist Jack Atlas joined Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a trailer editor. In 1982, Atlas reflected, “MGM was the only studio to really have its own trailer department.” Most trailers followed a formula. Compared to modern previews, Golden Age trailers had fewer quick cuts, letting scenes play out. There were familiar staples like text, music, and narration. Yet, the text was larger, the music was more generic, and the narrators sounded more like sideshow pitchmen. There were also special shoot trailers where entirely new footage was shot. The “Miracle on 34th Street” trailer is one example, following a fictional producer trying to find the best marketing strategy for the film.
Some special shoot trailers had hosts, like Orson Welles for “Citizen Kane,” Walt Disney for “Snow White,” and perhaps most famously, Alfred Hitchcock for “Psycho,” which included a tour of the Bates Motel. It’s unconventional for a director to oversee a trailer for their own films. Stanley Kubrick wasn’t a conventional filmmaker, however. For the “Dr. Strangelove” trailer, Kubrick enlisted graphic designer Pablo Ferro. Drawing inspiration from Arthur Lipsett’s Oscar-nominated collage film “Very Nice, Very Nice,” the “Strangelove” trailer was defined by its snappy editing. Andrew J. Kuehn, a former NSS employee, was also taking the medium in bolder directions with trailers for movies like “Night of the Iguana,” which incorporated fast edits and narration from a then-unknown James Earl Jones.
Founding Kaleidoscope Films, Kuehn worked on the trailers for some of Hollywood’s biggest movies, including the first summer blockbuster, “Jaws.” Initially, trailers were never meant to be seen outside of theaters. With Hollywood wanting to draw in larger audiences for event pictures, more focus went into TV advertising. TV opened the door for the home video market, with VHS and future formats allowing trailers to be watched beyond theaters. The 90s marked another major turning point for trailers. The decade produced elaborate teasers for films like 1998’s “Godzilla,” “Toys,” and “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.” The 90s also gave us numerous films that regularly had their musical scores repurposed in trailers for different movies. Randy Edelman’s “Dragonheart” theme and David Arnold’s “Stargate” theme are two examples.
Not only were trailers becoming more cinematic in terms of editing and music, but one voice defined the medium. Don LaFontaine started as an audio engineer, but his thunderous throat inevitably led to voiceover work. Doing radio spots for “Dr. Strangelove,” LaFontaine began a professional relationship with producer Floyd Peterson. They helped popularize the catchphrase, “In a world.” LaFontaine had been lending his voice to trailers ever since 1964’s “Gunfighters of Casa Grande,” when the original announcer didn’t show up. He went on to work at Kaleidoscope and Paramount, but it was in the 90s when LaFontaine’s voice blew up through trailers for movies like “Terminator 2,” “Batman Returns,” and “South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.” Funny to think how “South Park” later parodied trailer announcers.
While LaFontaine might’ve been “The King of Movie Trailers,” he wasn’t the only notable narrator. No Disney VHS was complete without a few previews narrated by Mark Elliott. For Jerry Seinfeld’s “Comedian,” Hal Douglas poked fun at the various overused trailer lines. An epic voice wasn’t the only way to hype up a film. The trailer for “The Matrix” had an ingenious tagline that hooked audiences: “Nobody can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.” “The Matrix” was the big winner at the inaugural Golden Trailer Awards, reflecting how trailers were becoming more than just ads. They were an art form in their own right. “The Matrix” won Best Action Trailer over “Star Wars: Episode I,” which also made a huge splash with its teaser.
Many patrons bought a ticket to “Meet Joe Black” simply because “The Phantom Menace” teaser accompanied it. Some left after the trailer, skipping the feature presentation. “See Spot Run” similarly benefited from having the first “Harry Potter” trailer. The alternative was to try and watch these anticipated trailers online… emphasis on “try.” Trailers have had an online presence since 1993, when AOL subscribers were granted access to previews for “In the Line of Fire” and “Super Mario Bros.” Of course, you’d have to wait hours for them to download. It’d be quicker to watch “Meet Joe Black,” which clocked in at three hours. Thankfully, internet speeds grew faster throughout the 2000s, which also saw the rise of a video-sharing platform called YouTube.
In the 2010s, there were two new norms for trailers. First, many of them incorporated the “Inception” BRAAAM sound effect. Second, more people started experiencing trailers not in the theaters, but on their phones, tablets, and computers. Some trailers rake in hundreds of millions of views on YouTube within their first 24 hours, often predicting future box office. While YouTube has made the distribution of trailers more convenient, something has also been lost. Before YouTube, trailers could fake us out, setting audiences up for one thing only to deliver something unexpected. “The Rugrats Movie,” “Scooby-Doo,” and “The Spy Who Shagged Me” all cleverly did this. With YouTube, though, we know what the movie is going to be when we click on the thumbnail.
Narration in movie trailers has also become less common since Don LaFontaine died in 2008. Yet, Jon Bailey has kept LaFontaine’s spirit alive through “Honest Trailers.” YouTube paved the way for other trailer parodies, as well as reaction videos. Trailers have never received more fanfare, with teasers now having even shorter teasers. Some are unveiled at events like Comic-Con and CinemaCon, building anticipation before debuting online. The internet has made feedback faster as well. Trailers for movies like “Sonic the Hedgehog” convinced the studios to change course. Other movies - like “Cats” and “Snow White” - died with their trailers, but sometimes studios make lemonade out of lemons. The “A Minecraft Movie” trailer went from being universally hated to launching a million memes with big box office.
While trailers play a bigger role in marketing than ever, they’re also a source of frustration. Pre-shows for various theaters are now 25-30 minutes. With reserved seating, more patrons are skipping the trailers and showing up late. In addition to having too many trailers, there are several common complaints. The trailer gave away too much! Scenes from the trailer weren’t in the finished film! The movie wasn’t what the trailer sold us! Of course, this is nothing new. The “Carrie” trailer spoiled its climactic prom scene. The “Casablanca” trailer features Humphrey Bogart saying a line that isn’t in the finished film. It goes to show that while trailers have evolved significantly over the decades, some elements never change. If there’s one constant, it’s that trailers can do their jobs too well, proving better than the movie itself.
What’s your favorite or least favorite movie trailer trope? Let us know in the comments.
