Coming soon to a theater near you: Trailers that either tell you the entire plot of the movie or absolutely nothing at all. No doubt this is a familiar sentiment that has only grown in the last few years. At some point, trailers took a nosedive in quality, and now all we have left are trailers that spoil everything about a movie or series, or ones that are beyond vague.

Think back to the last trailer that gave you an idea of what the movie was about without showcasing all the twists and turns and ruining what makes them so impactful before you even see the thing it’s advertising.

It doesn’t help that most trailers are almost exactly the same, or rely on the same phrases like they’re crutches for a broken leg. Look up trailers on YouTube and play a drinking game for how many times they start with a panning zoom out of a city (either New York or San Francisco). If kidney failure isn’t the result, then you haven’t seen enough trailers.

In all seriousness, the constant rehash of certain tropes and camera angles only hurts the viewer’s excitement. In a world where there’s a million trailers that focus on action hero number 46590, things start to blur if the trailers are also copy pasted. Heck, even this article isn’t safe from using the “In a world…” phrase.

What makes this situation even worse is that even trailers have trailers now. They’re known as teasers, yet they tend to tease absolutely nothing as they show one character standing with a menacing look on their face, just them in shadows, or merely their silhouette. 

This wouldn’t be so bad if they actually served their purpose of just being a little snippet to garner interest in a creative work, but now they’re as long standard trailers. What exactly is the difference now? Saying “the title” is cheating, that doesn’t count.

This isn’t going unnoticed of course. It’s no secret that trailers have been in decline for a bit now. It’s gotten to the point where even the creators of said trailers know that things have become repetitive. If even the creators know it’s bad and believe it’s big enough of an issue to comment on it, then who’s to blame?

Well the producers and executives of course. It should be no surprise that the suits at the top of these companies tend to be at fault as they are known to micromanage from time to time. Take Raimi’s Spiderman 3 for example. Venom originally was never going to be in that film, but the suits that hired Raimi forced him in anyway, and the movie suffered as a result.

This was clearly a bad idea, yet the studio execs went through with it anyway. Why? There is no clear answer, but the most logical conclusion is that because Venom is immensely popular and they wanted to cash in on that. However, with heavy hitters like Green Goblin and Sandman playing major roles in said movie, why did they feel the need for extra visibility, or “hype”?

What if the answer was a lack of confidence in the creative work? Studio execs aren’t typically fans of the media they produce, so they see it purely from a profit standpoint. Everything is a bottom line, and if it isn’t making millions of dollars on opening day, it’s a failure. Let’s call this, the death of genuine hype (title drop).

Nowadays companies have almost no confidence in the media they produce, and feel the need to drop a multitude of trailers in order to force engagement. Ads are placed everywhere. On YouTube, on TV, in your toothpaste tube…okay, not in your toothpaste tube, but still, maybe ON your toothpaste tube. If people aren’t constantly reminded about the newest movie, then it’s going to flop and be forgotten forever.

As a result, viewers are getting burned out and aren’t even watching the trailers. There’s an obsession for attention, and it’s hurting these works in the end because if they don’t make an absolute buttload of money, then the studio execs will never consider making media in that vein again, or even worse, they’ll lay off a bunch of people and blame them.

Moving back to trailers, we’re at a point where seven different YouTube channels will drop the exact same trailer at the same time. Why? Is one not enough? What is gained exactly when the same trailer is released by different people? Does this not divide engagement by stretching the audience in multiple directions? Not to mention how confusing it can be to see multiple trailers with different titles and thumbnails.

What makes this worse is when they release a second trailer that is quite literally just the previous trailer but with the scenes in a different order. They end up blurring together, making them redundant.

Seriously, when did trailers become so repetitive? Or maybe they’ve always been this way and growing up just opens your eyes to things you missed before. Whatever the reason, keeping up with the media you care about has kind of become a hassle.

Teasers have become trailers, and trailers have become spoiler fests that can kill excitement in an instant. It doesn’t help that “hate watching” and ragebait have seeped into it as well, which only feeds the fire by convincing executives that there’s genuine interest in the product they’re peddling.

Hopefully a change is made soon as the cycle has become bland and predictable. There’s a lot less excitement, and it feels so negative now.