THE HISTORY OF MOVIE TRAILERS

BY HOLLIE BADROCK

IN THE BEGINNING Unlike today’s multiplex cinemas (such as CineWorld), movie theatres in the 1910’s only had one screen. 1913 would be what many historians consider year zero for the movie trailer.

The idea of movie trailers began in New York City were Nils Granlund made a short promotional film for the Broadway play “Pleasure Seekers”, showcasing actual rehearsal footage. Movie producers then copied and built on what he did.

The idea of the trailer was born. They were called trailers as promotions for upcoming attractions would play at the end of the film.Most of these promotions were produced by the theatres themselves.

By 1916, the movie studios themselves began officially releasing for upcoming movies. These first film trailers were very basic as they generally consisted of snippets of film with some text overlay such as the cast of stars.

THE ERA OF BLOCKBUSTERSBy the 1970s the ‘Golden Era of Hollywood’ had ended. One of the key turning points in distribution strategy came in 1975 with the release of Jaws.Jaws was the first ever successful film to see a wide release. Before this, movies would premiere in big cities and then roll out so smaller markets over the coming weeks and months. The ‘blockbuster strategy’ was born after Jaws and trailers were a main focus of this.

PRESENT DAY Movie trailers are incredibly important today and are vital to successfully advertising a film so that it will earn a significant amount at the box office. Furthermore, the internet is a major platform for movie trailers as they can enable immediate global distribution.