Finally! Red Band Trailers to Be Played in Cinemas

By: Adam Quigley Posted: March 17, 2008 Filed under:

It's a fact: red band trailers are better than audience approved ones. It's not necessarily because they allow cursing, nudity, drug use, and extreme violence (although I'm not gonna lie, those things certainly help). No, it's mainly because they allow for audiences to gain a better understanding of what type of film to expect. This is especially evident with R-rated comedies, such as Walk Hard. That film suffered from spectacularly shitty marketing, but it wasn't the trailer editors' faults. They just weren't allowed to show any of the good stuff. Watch the red band trailer, and you'll notice instantly that the improvement is vast.

Yet, despite this, we're still forced to sit through the audience approved crap even when we've paid to see an R-rated movie. It's moronic.

But one theater chain is setting things straight. And by one, I mean the nation's largest: Regal Entertainment. Starting this week, Regal will be reviewing and playing red band trailers before any appropriate R-rated films. Hopefully other chains will catch on to this and follow suit.

The best thing I see coming out of this whole situation is studios becoming more willing to finance R-rated movies instead of pussifying things down to a PG-13. If they're given less restricted means of promoting R-rated pictures, it's likely they won't worry about those movies being unable to appeal to their target audience. Fingers crossed.

[Source The Hollywood Reporter]