There may be a blatantly obvious answer to this question, but if there is, I don't know it. I love my Hitchcock DVD's and some of my older films because it's very entertaining to watch the old style of trailers. Similarly, many of recent trailers are as well, and I guess it was when I realized that Garden State's DVD didn't include the trailer, that I started wondering, why wouldn't a studio include it? Besides the possibility of an old movie where a print no longer exists, I don't see any other rational reason.

Because people would rather see 12 minute featurettes that are 60% clips from the movie, and 40% actors talking about the movie.

When trailers are prepared, the film itself, including the score and music, is usually incomplete. Studios therefore often license pre-existing music for trailers. Because of the high expense of such licensing and because of the limited economic benefit of trailers, these licenses are usually very limited in scope. Therefore, in order to present the trailer on DVD, the studio would have to pay a lot more money to keep the music. The cost is often prohibitively expensive.

That explains at least some of the situations, anyway.

DJ

Thanks DJ, just kind of annoyed me because I remember being really enticed to see Garden State when I first saw the trailer, and was then extremely disappointed to see it not included on the DVD. Didn't realize that the rights wouldn't be retained on something like a trailer, the music, that is.

Thanks for clarifying that DJ. I wonder if this very question is raised when the trailers are produced. I would think studios would know by know the long-lasting impact trailers can have.

Then again, I don't think like a studio.

I don't know why the Garden State trailer wasn't on the dvd. The song from the trailer is on the official soundtrack so they must have the rights to it.

That's what I was thinking, but that was the teaser-trailer ('Let Go' by Frou Frou). The actual trailer had 'Such Great Heights' as performed by the Postal Service, as opposed to the Iron & Wine cover of the song which is on the soundtrack, so that may be a possible discrepency as far as the full trailer goes, and maybe they figured that it wouldn't be worth just having the teaser-trailer...? Or I may just be over speculating.

Because of room on the disc. I would much rather have better quality film over something that compressed a bit more because they tried to jam pack a trailer. Though they did put in a music promo.. but that is marketing.

My wife and I really enjoy watching the trailer before we actually watch the movie. The lack of a tralier is getting more and more prevalent.

Almost as bad is when it's on the second disc in a 2 disc set. We pop in the first disc and get comfortable, then start the DVD only to find out the trailer isn't there, but it's probably on the second disc. I know we're probably lazy, but by then I don't want to get up and switch discs only to have to switch discs again after the trailer is over.


Stew

Some movies don't deserve no steenkeeng trailer.

trailers often contain spoilers. bad

I find at least in my opinion that older films' trailer's are often more of an overview of the movie (think Hitchcock's North by Northwest where we 'travel' the some of the spots in the movie) while nowadays it's almost common practice to give away too much (we see Tom Hanks' character lives through Cast Away, and they actually show the final scene of Garden State in the trailer). For that reason, I usually watch a trailer after a movie, as odd as it may seem, but I find it interesting to see how well a trailer lived up to the movie it was trying to present. As far as it 'taking up too much space,' on a standard dual-layer disc, unless there are 1. a bunch of other extras, or 2. the movie is over 2 hours, there should be no problem with fitting a 1-3 minute trailer. I just feel like a trailer is part of the movie itself and should always be included unless there are some specific circumstances regarding right's issues.

Trailers should be mandatory on ALL DVDs as far as I'm concerned. I'd even take a teaser-trailer than the majority of promotional crap they put on DVDs these days.

Hell, I remember when a trailer was pretty standard for a DVD. If a DVD was barebones, you could pretty much count on a trailer being on the disc. But now, I've been noticing as of late, more and more DVD's not having trailers. This thread has been pretty informative as to why as I just figured maybe some companies would rather just not take the time to throw it on there with the other supplements.

one question, does Pirates of the Caribbean include the trailer? i remember not finding it when watching the extras disc.

A big from me for trailers. I love 'em! But, like was said above, they too often contain big spoilers these days, so I've learned not to watch them until after the movie! I learned my lesson on Double Jeopardy, when I watched the trailer, watched the movie, then realized after the movie I'd already seen it in three minute form beforehand.

Another reason, sad to say (as a trailer nut), is that when studios poll DVD viewers as to their essential picks for DVD extras, trailers virtually always rank in the bottom 1/3, so now they're leaving them off because they're perceived as an unwanted extra. I think the unique issue here is that, if we assume these polls to be accurate, they miss the fact that, for that 1/3 that does value trailers, they often consider them to be THE most vital extra for a DVD, ranking even above making-of documentaries and director's commentary tracks. I certainly know I do--there's nothing more disappointing than picking up a new DVD that may be loaded with extra features, only to find that the trailer isn't one of them. Dreamworks is the greatest offender, and they handle all of Spielberg's films these days, so that particularly burns. Oh, and we had to wait eight long years for a FIFTH ELEMENT So-Called Ultimate Edition only to have trailers for various films but none for FE?! Yeah, the current state of trailer unappreciation by many studios has been quite a bitter pill to swallow...I wish they'd rethink just how important this feature is to a substantial minority of DVD collectors...

I am disappointed when a trailer is not on disc 1. I hate when there are multiple trailers, but none for the movie you are watching.

I agree but at the same time I'm leaning more towards actually liking this. I'm spending more money on DVD's and waiting for movies more now for DVD instead of seeing them in the theater, now I just enjoy them mostly on my home theater. For those like myself who are home enjoying a good popcorn experience on their home theater, I personally enjoy watching the trailers at the beginning of a DVD.

Bizarrely enough the DVD contains the Japanese trailer (an easter egg on the 2nd disc) but not an English one. I hate that because there's a line I love in the trailer that didn't make into the film or the deleted scenes.

I would also like to see all DVDs contain the trailer. I always watch the trailer just after viewing the film since they're often spoilerish.

Greed of the studios. Why waste space for a trailer of the movie you're gonna watch when they could put an extra forced one at the beginning of the disc to sell one of their other DVD's. It's sad to see trailers from the film no longer included on the disc. I was really looking forward to the Anchorman and Resident Evil: Apocalypse ones. No dice.

I really enjoy movie trailers and would prefer that none are dropped from the DVD itself. I much prefer the original movie trailer (and some international trailers too) over the other movie trailers that studios include to pawn their other movie titles, which is why I believe they cut the original trailers.

A good example is Star Trek Generations, it has great trailer but its not on the DVD due to music rights etc

Resident Evil: Apocalypse had the trailer and teaser trailer on disc 2.

I just download the ones I like from sites like this:

www.davestrailerpage.co.uk

and keep them archived on my home computer. They aren't as good as they could be, but at least it's something.