2, 3, 10!? How Many Trailers Are Acceptable Before a Feature Film?

Last month I wrote an article discussing whether or not modern film trailers reveal too much juicy plot information. Today I’m back to talk about trailers yet again, but not about content, rather trailer quantity.

This is certainly a much talked about topic. How many trailers are acceptable before a feature film? At many theatres across the country, they simply don’t care that you are forced to sit through the previews – Okay, maybe that’s a rough accusation. I’m sure they care, but they don’t do anything about it. Much of the time, they can’t. Much of the time it’s not the individual theatre’s fault, as [some] studios are forcing theatres to add an extreme amount of previews before the feature hits the screen.

Being a former 35mm film projectionist at Willow Creek Twelve, I can’t tell you how many studio demands we would receive every week. Typically, it would be a generically written up statement by the studio telling the theatre projectionist that specific trailers need to be on specific films. Sometimes I would abide by their requests, especially if it was advertised on television or the Internet that a special trailer would be on the opening of a new film.

Another studio demand would be the amount of trailers running before the feature. No matter what trailers came in the film canisters along with the feature, they had to be included in our over-all presentation. Five to ten trailers arrived with our 35mm film print of The Departed, for example? Then I was supposed to put all of them on before the feature – though I never did. That can equal anywhere up to 25 minutes. Irritating, right? Irritating for a few of reasons. 1) Not all of the trailers would technically fit the feature, content wise. 2) The trailers in the can would generally only be for the specific studio that distributed the film 3) And above all else, you would have to sit through 25 minutes worth of previews.

What do I mean when I say “content wise”? Generally, for me, when picking trailers for films at Willow Creek I try to find thematic parallels, tones and most obviously a similar genre. Sometimes I can accomplish this with ease. Sometimes I can’t, so I just go with my gut instinct. I do research before applying trailers to films. It only makes sense, right? Some will argue. Of course we want to advertise for all films, but I will not dare put a comedy trailer on a drama, unless the circumstance calls for it. There’s something about creating a mood within the entire theatrical presentation that deeply affects our psyche.

Do all theatres work with this method? No. More often than not theatres will put anything before a movie. As I briefly stated above, when 35mm film projection was the norm, the projectionist, at your run of the mill movie theatre [even big chains], would put everything in front of a feature. If it arrived in the film canisters, it was apart of the presentation.

In 2004 at an AMC showing of Phantom of the Opera, I sat through 27 minutes worth of previews; some kids movies, some stupid comedies, some romantic comedies, and a few dramas. All I know is that when the fifth trailer hit the screen, which was only the 10-minute mark, I started to fidget in my seat. I was restless, bored, and above all else, angry. To be honest, by the time the trailers had finished, I forgot what film I actually paid for.

It’s been clear that in the last several weeks we’ve been gaining new customers at Willow Creek Twelve, as the one comment that I’m hearing the most is, “You have about 20 minutes worth of trailers, correct?”

Well, I want to clear something up: No. When you look in the paper or online, and see that a movie at Willow Creek starts at 7:00pm, what that means is the feature will hit the screen between 7:05 and 7:07, depending on the length of the two trailers we’ve added before the film.

Muller Family Theatres mandated this be the norm in the late 90s. It’s something I truly appreciate, especially when I was a 35mm projectionist, and still to this day as 85% of the time I decide what trailers go on what movies.

The face of entertainment advertising has changed significantly over the last decade. Trailers can be played on IMDb or YouTube or Hulu, where they can be viewed multiple times over. It’s not as important as it used to be to get them on the big screen for a mass audience. Why? Because the mass audience is watching them on their own time, on their extremely smart phones while riding the bus to work, or in bed while they contemplate if they could sleep for an additional 25 minutes and still make it to work on time.

How many trailers can you tolerate before it drives you insane? 


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