Movie Theater Owners Demanding Studios Make Shorter Movie Trailers

Movie trailers are the basic form of viral marketing, and every Saturday we have been posting the most talked about trailers on our Trailers Weekly. A lot of those trailers appear in your local theater, while others are web exclusive. But there is no denying that the number of movie trailers that appear before the actual film have increased dramatically. And with an average run time of two and a half minutes, the time that has passed during the movie trailer marathon may amount to 10 to 12 minutes.

So movie theater owners are asking for shorter trailers. Hit the jump to learn more on how this could affect your movie watching experience.

According to the The Hollywood Reporter new guidelines have been issued by the National Assn. of Theatre Owners call for limiting the length of movie trailers to two minutes.

These new guidelines were designed to maximize the effectiveness of the movie’s marketing. In addition to the limiting of the movie trailer’s runtime, theater owners are also asking to restrict the marketing time for trailers to be shown five months prior to the film’s release date, with any other movie marketing materials shown two months before initial release. There will be exemptions as each studio can break the rules for two eagerly anticipated movies per year.

It should be interesting to see how trailers are edited with these new guidelines in place, which are said to take effect for any film released domestically on or after Oct. 1. The move looks like it will cut down on trailers being plot revealing and focus more on having those “trailer moments.” Creating a trailer specifically to get the audience interest in the movie is what a trailer is suppose to be. No one wants to see the entire film in two minutes, and these new guidelines will help reduce the number of plot revealing trailers.

Of course, Hollywood may not feel compelled to comply with these new guidelines, they are voluntary. Should Hollywood continue to dole out their lengthy trailers, movie theater owners will not show them, but they also lose money in the process.