Last summer, Regal Entertainment Group showed an exclusive five-minute behind-the-scenes look at the making of “Les Miserables” prior to the films shown in all their theaters nationwide. This new marketing strategy was a big hit. Since then, several studios have tried their hand at duplicating that success by making their own “extended previews” of upcoming releases. But now it’s just gone too far.
The “Les Mis” piece had a purpose: to showcase the “singing live” aspect of the film. It wasn’t just an extra-long trailer with a few interviews thrown in. Unfortunately the piece didn’t get director Tom Hooper the Oscar nomination he deserved, however millions (myself included) were captivated watching it, even multiple times. Hearing Anne Hathaway sing part of “I Dreamed a Dream” made it a must-watch. Yet, it didn’t spoil the film by giving too much away.
That’s exactly the OPPOSITE of what’s happening now. Everybody is now producing “extended previews” of upcoming films. Before “The Wolverine” there were not one, but two of these. The first was for Matt Damon’s sci-fi film “Elysium”. While I laughed at co-star Sharlto Copley introducing himself as “that guy from “District 9″‘, I covered my eyes and ears as best as I could for the rest of it (at least three minutes) because the piece showed way too much of the movie. Having trailers give away storylines and plot points is bad enough. Now we’ve got to deal with these preview features spoiling films.
Next came The Simon Pegg/Nick Frost comedy “The World’s End”. At least this feature was shorter. But even brief interviews with the actors explaining the plot is more than I want to see when I’m attending another film.
And there’s clearly no one paying attention to when this extended previews are running. “The Great Gatsby” piece was shown up to the week before its release. And when Walmart did their special “Man of Steel” screening promotion, the preview feature ran right before the film itself. So audiences had to hear director Zack Snyder describing scenes from the film TWO MINUTES BEFORE IT WAS ABOUT TO START!
I think you can tell that this new trend is driving me INSANE. It’s clearly a case of copying something that worked (with “Les Mis”) but not doing it the right way. The “Les Mis” feature was special. Everything that’s come since has been worthless. And I haven’t even mentioned the extra time these features add to a night at the theater. If complaining to theater GMs or the studios will help end this madness then let’s start complaining.