Movie Theaters Want Studios to Shorten Trailers

Remember how annoyed you were when thatmassive three-minute Man of Steel trailer came out and you felt like you basically saw the whole movie? Well, the owners of movie theaters nationwide were equally annoyed. The Hollywood Reporter writes that the National Association of Theater Owners (NATO for short, which is pretty funny) is pushing to limit the length of trailers to two minutes — 30 seconds short of the now standard 2.5 minutes. NATO argues that they are on the front lines with movie patrons and are constantly fielding complaints that the trailers are too long and give away too much of the plot. The studios obviously like their long trailers; that’s why they make them that way. One studio executive told THR, "My trailers are 2.5 minutes because that's what we need to send the right message," adding, “This could be a paradigm shift. Thirty seconds is a long time." There is also the possibility that after the change, theaters will just end up using the saved time to air more trailers, something they are paid to do. How about no trailers before the movies and instead we’ll find a digital location — let’s call it “the Internet” — in which people, at their own discretion, can access trailers of varying length at all times.