Talk:Trailer (promotion)/Archives/2020

Definition is missing.

Movie previews were called previews for most of my life until the early 1990's when there was a new idea. The production companies decided to try showing additional previews after the feature film had ended. Poles showed that audiences were open to the idea of staying in their seats a couple minutes longer to watch previews. As it turned out though, after sitting for nearly two hours, few people actually stayed to watch the "trailers". That is where the name came from! Does nobody but me remember this? Every local news station did a story about "something new at the movie theater". I followed it intently because I hoped it would not catch on. The 1992 movie "Toys" starring Robin Williams was the first movie to be advertised in a trailer (that is, a preview that trails the feature film). The idea was scraped but the name stuck. Only since 1992 were previews ever called trailers. I know because it has bothered me ever since when people call a preview a trailer. I don't have any sources yet but please tell me there is someone here who remembers this. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Quadient (talk • contribs)

The term has been in use since 1919, and the practice is a bit older than that. Remember, movie serials were big back then, so showing a promotion for the next film in the series at the end of the one you'd watched made a great deal of sense. They got moved in front of the film in the 30s when serials weren't so popular any more. This is all covered in the history section. - MrOllie (talk) 19:31, 16 June 2020 (UTC)