Movie trailers have one goal above all others – get as many bodies into the cinema as possible to see the film in question.
And so, without there being any easy legal consequences for dishonest movie marketing, studios will often bend the truth to near-breaking point in order to give their film the best chance of becoming a smash hit.
And in recent times, these 20 movies were all released following a spate of trailers that played fast and loose with the truth, whether to cynical ends or to simply preserve a surprise genuinely worth concealing.
So to be clear, not all deceptive movie marketing is necessarily bad – but even when it’s hiding something that many viewers will ultimately enjoy, it’s tough to blame audiences who feel they were sold a very different film from the one they ended up seeing.
For better or worse, the trailers for these movies lied to us about the content of these films, ensuring that no matter how good the reviews were, a lot of viewers ended up feeling bait-and-switched by it all…
All Future PLC brands are supported by its audience. When you purchase through the links on this article, Future PLC may earn an affiliate commission.
