TheMovieman

Subject says it all, but kind of annoying that (generally) new releases don't come with the theatrical trailers or TV spots of the movie being released. Any reason for that? Only studio that seems to consistently include them is Fox.

thetao

I noticed this, too, and figured the answer was either laziness or indifference. Perhaps the "movie people" who ran the studios' home video divisions in the heydays of DVD and Blu-ray have moved on, and those who took their place are just doing lip service?

Personally, I think the bare minimum for any release is the film in OAR with the original soundtrack, subtitles, guided chapter access, and the trailer (where available).

davidh777

I wish they had them too. My guess is that the trailers are considered an advertising vehicle for other movies rather than as bonus material for that movie.

dex14

Because the internet.

E Unit

Most people don't care for special edition type releases anymore, which is where they usually ended up. Like those old MGM DVD's that included "special feature - original theatrical trailer".

Alan Smithee

One thing that annoys me is when they take out any of the info with release dates or even "Coming Soon" indicators- Warner and Sony do that a lot, and you can usually tell where they were supposed to be when there's a screen full of basically nothing- that's where they originally had "On July 14th..." or something like that. The trailers should be preserved as they were originally.

Sonic

In my opinion the original trailer should always be included on the disc. I care more about the trailer than extra bonuses like deleted scenes etc. I'm not much of a "bonus" guy.

hdnmickey

If the trailer includes footage not in the final movie, or is one of the many that is made up of footage especially made for the trailer, it should be on the disk. But so many fall short these days. Thankfully many studios are including them as promos before other movies so if you collect enough discs, you often get lucky and have it anyway.

orangerunner

The trailer is an important part of the movie's history. It's interesting to see especially when the marketing of the film is often completely different than the film itself.

I remember seeing the ads for "Payback" with Mel Gibson and the trailer made it look like a funny action/comedy which was completely different than the tone of the film itself.

As mentioned above, it's also important to preserve the trailers as they were originally shown with "Coming this Christmas" etc.

I used to also buy the original 35mm trailers from eBay and since I don't have a projector to play them on, I always relied on the DVD to have a watchable copy of it.

Coral

I get that trailers are part of a movie's history, but how often do any of you really watch them?

If I own the movie, the only time I'll watch the trailer is if I remember it being a great trailer - but I'd probably watch it only once anyway. Otherwise I don't see the point. If I'm going to go to the trouble of putting a disc into the player - it's to watch the actual movie. If I really wanted to watch the trailer (highly unlikely) - it's probably available on Youtube or IMDB anyway.

To me it's like saving the flyer ad for a product you bought.

fumanstan

I don't care about trailers, if I wanted to revisit them for a movie I can find it easily enough on YouTube.

mcnabb

I agree with this as they are all on YouTube and I can watch them on my TV now streaming, instead of popping in the bonus features disk. 10-15 years ago, a DVD was the only way to watch a Trailer.

hdnmickey

I definitely re-watch trailers when they are include don the disc. Esepecially when they are like this one and essentially include footage specifically done for the trailer.



And while most might be available on youtube, not all are, and would rather not stop watching the other features just to access the trailer. The youtube quality often sucks as well.

Josh-da-man

Could it be a licensing issue, where they would need to pay out a bit for music rights or something similar? I could definitely see them scrapping trailers to save a few bucks.

E Unit

Especially when there's issues with the music used in the trailer, like what happened with the teaser for 1492 and the music used from Enigma.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bmnLrzG2zKw" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

PhantomStranger

Modern trailers rarely transcend being anything more than mere marketing vehicles. There used to be an art to a great trailer but studios nowadays often just recap the entire plot in two minutes.

Shooba

One edited one that stands out for me is the Batman & Robin trailer on the disc, where you hear the audio cut out as they removed the release date for some reason. That one always struck me as an example of a good trailer for an awful movie.

I miss the narration on trailers too. Guess it saves a few bucks not to pay for someone to do it. The Star Trek trailers did this well to tell a story, even if the trailer "story" didn't always match the movie plot. They were often about "saving the universe", even when the movies weren't.

Alan Smithee

This. I do wish there were a database of EVERY disc and tape ever released that includes trailers and which ones they are, but it seems too big a task for anyone to attempt. When I do reviews here, I always mention what trailers are on the disc.

Trailers are yet another thing that have been cheapened both by the internet and digital projection- digital theatrical trailers now come in several different versions that include promotion for different theaters' "premium" systems, with tags saying "See it in Regal RPX" or "Cinemark XD" (both of which suck, as they don't have proper 2.35 screens.)

That "1492" trailer was the first thing on the trailer reel I kept at the theaters I worked at- was always changing the stuff on it, but kept this one at the beginning to properly focus and frame everything and get down into the theater to see and hear what came after it.

orangerunner

I still remember that crappy Freddie Prinz Jr. movie "Wing Commander" had a way-better than expected theatrical run simply due to the fact they were running the Star Wars The Phantom Menace trailer at the beginning.

There were reports of lots of people buying tickets, watching the trailer and then just leaving after the trailer was finished.

In the pre-internet streaming era, trailers had that mystique and that sense of anticipation about them. Now they just seem perfunctory.

Why So Blu?

You sure it was Wing Commander? I remember it being that one with Brad Pitt - Meet Joe Black.

orangerunner

You may be right, I can't remember too well. It may have been the first full-length trailer, not the teaser. I'm sure it's been meticulously chronicled somewhere on the internet.

joltman

You're both right, per Wikipedia

Why So Blu?

davidh777

I kinda like having trailers for other movies on the disc as long as (1) they're easily skippable and (2) they're listed in a menu showing what they are. I always skip them when starting a disc, but I might go back and watch if I saw there was one I was interested in.

PhantomStranger

I remember dozens of people walking out of Wing Commander after the Star Wars trailer. They got it right because Wing Commander is an awful movie.