Restricted Trailers to Hit Regal Cinemas

Posted by Cole Abaius (cole.abaius@filmschoolrejects.com) on March 17, 2008

The nation’s largest theater chain announced recently that they’ll soon allow Red Band trailers onto their screens. In an article regarding the announcement, The Hollywood Reporter’s Gregg Kilday points out that the industry leader’s move could very well prompt other chains to follow suit.

The shift is undoubtedly brought about by the rise in popularity of the R-rated comedy - a recent trend that re-emerged with comedies like There’s Something About Mary and continued to grow to complete commercial viability with Old School and The Wedding Crashers. Now that they’re back in style, studios have felt restricted by having to create G-rated promos for R-rated fare.

Of course, other genres will benefit from the freedom - namely Horror flicks and Action films with excessive violence and gore. This move has also been eased because of new digital technology, which will allow the theaters a greater amount of freedom to repackage or unpack trailers from films at their discretion - meaning they can deal with each potentially offensive Red Bander in a case-by-case scenario.

Perhaps the biggest winner in all of this, besides the studio that can now directly market the unique features of their movies, is the audience who will no longer have to see watered-down trailers to get them excited about a movie they might want to see. It will be a lot more fun to see Red Band trailers on the big screen than having to watch them online.

Source: THR

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