Day 6How to enjoy a movie in the era of strategic spoilers
The excitement was high when Marvel Studios‘ Fantastic Four: First Steps stormed into theatres in July.
Many fans were eager to see the iconic quartet of heroes on film for the first time since 2015.
But for some, the thrill was dampened by an unexpected foe: spoilers.
Fans like Tyler (Sooplex) Williams took to social media to say that Marvel is “over-marketing” First Steps, while others on Reddit claimed they’d “already seen the whole thing” due to the overwhelming amount of trailers, clips and even toys released ahead of time.
Trailers released in the months leading up to its debut had revealed key plot points — including that during the film’s events, Invisible Woman (Sue Storm, played by Vanessa Kirby) gives birth to her son, Franklin.
The drops didn’t stop there.
“In the early trailers, you don’t know that the big villain [Galactus] wants the baby. And people were upset to find that out in a later trailer,” film critic Rad Simonpillai told Day 6‘s host Brent Bambury.
Viewers who saw this teaser weren’t happy, with some saying, “This seems like a very important moment, they’re showing too much now.”
However, while viewers might see these moments as spoilers, one industry insider says the decisions behind them are anything but careless.
Jim Fredrick, a professor of entertainment marketing at Chapman University in Orange, Calif., says there’s a strategy behind every second of footage shown before release.
“I don’t think marketers of films set out to give away secrets in a movie, that’s not our goal,” he said. “Our goal is to try to get the most people to come [to] that first opening weekend to a movie theatre.”
‘Spoilers’ play an important role
Fredrick has experience with both the creative and strategic sides of making film trailers. His 40 year career in the industry includes cutting trailers and leading marketing at Castle Rock Entertainment, Warner Bros. and Sony Screen Gems.
He’s also the author of Opening Weekend: An Insider’s Look at Marketing Hollywood’s Hits and Flops.
He says the push to reveal more in trailers stems in part from a shift in how audiences choose what to watch.
“It used to be that if you had a big movie star, that was enough. If Adam Sandler made a movie, and you’re an Adam Sandler fan, you’re going to go,” he said.
Fantastic Four: First Steps, the latest release from Marvel Studios, stars Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as the iconic superhero team. According to CBC’s Eli Glasner, the film is ‘a little more serious and a little more earnest’ and lacks certain fantastical elements present in the original comics.
Now, trailers have to work harder to sell a film, and marketers must clearly communicate what makes a film appealing to persuade audiences to watch it.
“When you have the luxury of a star way back when, you could be more secretive, you could be more ambiguous on what your movie was about,” he said. “You don’t have that today.”
Tell me more, not less
While studios may give general guidance to how trailers are made, Fredrick says the creative reins are usually given to the editors.
“What you choose to tell and not tell has always been one of the main conundrums of being a trailer maker,” he said.
“I would go into a dark room by myself, watch the film a couple of times, take notes, write a script and start editing a trailer.”
Once a trailer passes internal reviews by marketing teams and filmmakers, it’s then screened for members of the target audience, who watch and offer feedback.
Perhaps ironically, Fredrick says the most common feedback is that trailers don’t show enough, rather than reveal too much.
“Usually, research suggests very strongly, ‘You better tell the audience more,'” he said.
‘A delicate dance’
Fredrick recalls working on the trailer for The Shawshank Redemption as one of the more difficult marketing projects he’s worked on.
“It’s always been a delicate dance between trying your best to persuade consumers to go see a film, and trying to maintain a certain degree of mystery and anticipation about a film,” he said.
The 1994 film, while critically acclaimed today, didn’t offer obvious hooks to draw in a mainstream audience with an attention-grabbing trailer.
“It was set in a prison, carried a dark and serious tone and was rated R,” he said.
The director, Frank Darabont, was adamant about not giving away main plot points, such as how the main character escapes the prison, and how he gets revenge with the cruel warden.
“I had a blast cutting it, because the movie is filled with wonderful moments. But those moments and the story had a lot of obstacles to get the general public interested in going to see it,” he said.
Does First Steps stumble?
Simonpillai doesn’t believe the Fantastic Four trailers truly spoiled the film’s magic.
In fact, he believes that the film’s biggest strengths lie not in its twists, but in its visuals and performances.
“There’s so much pleasure in its visual aesthetic and its retro-futuristic version of Manhattan in the ’60s,” he said.
And it’s the cast that gave the film its lasting resonance.
“They’re playing very archetypal characters, but this cast is so good that they give it a beating heart,” said Simonpillai.
“Everything that’s really good about this movie that makes it stand apart as a fun, almost Star Trek-y adventure is not gonna be spoiled.”
