What Makes a Great Movie Trailer?

This research analyzes four case study films across two genres to identify the best tactics used in trailer marketing and editing in order to create box office successful films that attract their identified target audiences. Existing research and a pre-existing interview were used to identify and define these tactics before then applying the strategies onto existing film trailers. The two genres chosen in this analysis include Romantic Comedies and Animated Action/Adventure Family Films. In each genre, a successful and unsuccessful film were chosen then compared against one another to determine if the successful film trailers utilized the previously identified tactics. Successful films in this analysis are defined as films which had a positive return on investment (ROI) by making more money in the box office compared to their production budget. Unsuccessful films are defined as films which had a negative ROI by making less money in the box office compared to their box office revenue. The two trailers in each genre were then directly compared against one another both in this paper and in attached video essays. The tactics identified in this analysis include music choices, lighting for genre conventions, fast editing, and more outlined throughout this paper.