Are Film Trailers Becoming Outdated?

Film trailers are commonly used to show key moments of the film without giving away any of the vital content of the film, so that viewers are enticed to go and see the film. However today trailers are becoming more and more susceptible to spoilers and scrutiny from viewers which leads to various leaks onto a large number of different mediums.

Also the merchandise which becomes available for promotion of the upcoming film becomes a large contributer towards spoilers and revealing too much information about the film. For example when Star Wars 'The Phantom Menace' was being released, the official soundtrack was released before the film was released theatrically which revealed some vital points within the plot of the film.


Also when toys are produced and brought out prior to the theatrical release of the actual film. This also gives out information about characters to feature in the film and these may want to be kept as secretive as possible by production and distribution companies, for example new villains in various superhero movies such as the spiderman film series and also other franchises, are revealed ahead of release. The audience can take individual frames or shots of the new characters and leak these to large numbers of different sites.

So I do think that trailers are becoming more and more outdated as time goes on because simply I believe that the purpose of trailers are being conveyed throughout other mediums in the media industry which provide the same function as to what trailers are made to do for an upcoming film.