The Weird Way Movie Trailers Are Getting Shorter and Shorter

Has anyone else noticed that movie trailers just don’t feel the same anymore? I was trying to get hyped for that new sci-fi movie coming out, and the main trailer is barely over a minute and a half. I remember a time when a trailer was a solid two-and-a-half-minute event. It feels like we’re getting just a quick flash of scenes and that’s it.

I was talking to a friend about this, and he pointed out that it’s probably because of TikTok and Instagram Reels. Our attention spans are shot. Studios are terrified that we’ll swipe away if they don’t grab us in the first three seconds. So they compress everything into this hyper-fast, almost chaotic montage. But honestly, sometimes it has the opposite effect on me. If it’s too fast, I can’t even tell what the movie’s about, and I just forget about it. Does that happen to anyone else?

And it’s not just the length, it’s the content. It feels like modern trailers have this specific formula. You get the quiet, intriguing start, then the funny one-liner, then the music kicks in and it’s just a rapid-fire sequence of the biggest action shots or the most dramatic moments. By the end, I feel like I’ve already seen the entire third act of the film. Take some of the recent Marvel trailers – sometimes it feels like they just showed me the entire final battle. Where’s the mystery?

I miss the art of the trailer. The ones that built a mood, that gave you a sense of the story without spelling everything out. The first trailer for *Inception* is a perfect example. It was mysterious, the music was haunting, and it left you with a million questions. You *had* to see the movie to get the answers. Now, it often feels like the trailer’s main job is to assure you that the movie has all the required elements – a joke, a explosion, a romantic look – and that’s it.

What do you all think? Am I just being nostalgic, or are trailers genuinely getting worse? Have you seen a recent trailer that you thought was actually great and didn’t give away the whole plot? I’m genuinely curious if this is a widespread feeling or just me getting old.