So I did have a look at the CBC movie trailer article and here’s the interesting thing about it: the truth is that both giving away the plot points and not giving them away in the trailer work equally well. The key is not to give away CRUCIAL plot points.
Whether people want to admit it or not, spoilers do not stop people from seeing movies and in fact encourage them to see it. It doesn’t matter if they got the spoilers from reading the book, seeing the first filmed adaptation, the movie trailer, discussing it with people or reading a summary online. It has actually been proven that online piracy of films actually makes people pay to see them again in theatres and I would think seeing the entire movie itself is one pretty damn big spoiler!
The argument is flawed in that it’s not giving away plot points in the trailer that is the issue. The issue is whether you’re going to give away CRUCIAL plot points or not. If you see a trailer with Sylvester Stallone kicking ass for The Expendables, it’s probably not a shock that he and the Expendables kill all the bad guys and win the day at the end. Nor is it surprising that Tom Hanks lives at the end of Castaway. Hell, it’s not even a problem that you give away the fact that Tim Robbins really is a psycho terrorist in Arlington Road.
But it IS a problem if you give away the fact that Tim Robbins WINS at the end of Arlington Road; that she is really a he in The Crying Game; or that Bruce Willis is actually a ghost in The Sixth Sense. If you were to give those away, then nobody would bother to see those movies at all. Those are crucial plot points upon which their movies actually hinge and if you gave them away the show’s over.
Arlington Road is a very interesting example to pick for the article because the author completely missed his own point when choosing this movie. The trailer does give away the fact that Robbins is evil but it actually hides very important and crucial plot points. In case you weren’t aware, the movie was a box office bomb as the audiences were revolted by the fact that evil Tim Robbins not only kills heroic Jeff Bridges, he successfully sets him up as the bad guy so he dies in disgrace AND keeps Bridges’ son whom he kidnapped earlier at the end of the movie. Had any or all of these been hinted at in the trailer, I guarantee the movie would’ve made even less money than it did. The studio couldn’t do that so they had to a standard good guy vs bad guy trailer but then this was a complete fraud perpetrated on the audience as to the movie they were promised by the trailer. Once word spread about the movie, the box office tanked.
Movie marketing is tough. You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. But the same rule still applies: you can give away as many plot points as you want in the trailer as long as they are not the ones the movie actually hinges upon. Look at the Avengers and the The Dark Knight Rises trailers. Though they appear to give most everything away, they are not giving away crucial plot points that matter so the audience knows what it is getting but is still prevented from being spoiled even when the public already suspects what they are. We still don’t know exactly who or what is helping Loki conquer Earth and battle the Avengers (spoiler: The Avengers win!) and who is behind Bane and Catwoman’s efforts to destroy Gotham once and for all (spoiler: Batman wins!) So the audience will go to see them even though we already know the endings and most of the plot points.
So I agree with Zemeckis on this one: you do whatever you have to do to get people to see your movie even if it means giving plot points away. Just don’t give away the really important ones, the money shot plot points as they were.
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