THB #568: A Tale of 2 Trailers
Sorry I don’t have something deep and overwritten, loaded with details that make your head explode today.
We are really in a news dead zone. And I can’t keep pretending that we know more about the Paramount purchase than we do. I will keep repeating the core question… How will technology improve the quality of films produced on Ellison Mountain? No one has ever shown - aside from improvements in effects - that this is real. Delivery systems? Absolutely. Maybe he and his will rethink content delivery on Streamers and that could, indeed, change things. But make a movie better? Not so much.
Anyway…
I happened upon this “Official Close of Sale Trailer” from Warner Bros UK/Ireland yesterday when looking at some other trailer on YouTuve and I was kind of blown away…
A few of the shots from this trailer - which might be a long TV spot at 1:32 - are in the domestic trailers and ads. But apparently, Universal (the domestic distributor) has decided not to put audiences in movie theaters worry about a twister coming to get them in an actual movie theater.
I have been whining about his campaign for months… and not nothing hit me like that beat. For me, it creates an intimacy that is not about giant effects… and that is why I want to see Twisters.
That made me look at Twisters, Trailer 2 from Warners in the UK.
And again… quite different at the core than Universal’s pitch. Glen Powell’s voice apologizing at the top. The line about the measure of a tornado being the damage not the size or speed. The baseball game.
So what was Universal’s domestic release choice?
We start with the rodeo - perhaps more of an American idea - and then go to the conflict between the uptight city scientist and the tornado chasing dude (Powell). We get the fireworks and the scientific orbs meant to control the tornado. And a lot of macho from Mr. Powell.
80% of the footage is probably the same in the 2 trailers. But to my eye, very different takes.
There is no real way of measuring which approach will be more successful. Box office is not really a way of measuring, because there are so many other elements influencing those numbers.
There used to be a lot more studio splits (domestic/international) on movies. But the era of IP and the involvement of businesses (like Skydance) that invest in big movies at every major studio has made it much more rare.
One of the last ones I recall was when Sony kept Matilda theatrical in the UK while Netflix got the film for the streamer everywhere else.
The film grossed $36 million in the UK/Ireland only, making it the 11th biggest film of 2022, right behind Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
Ironically, the Netflix trailer was far more elaborate and explained the film much more thoroughly… even though it probably wasn’t much seen.
So… that is something to chew on…
As a little post-meal treat, I also ran into trailers from The Watchers, which in the UK was called The Watched and in Germany was called They See You.
The world has gotten so small… but not that small, I guess.
Until tomorrow…