Box Office Returns Continue to Decline →

I know there’s plenty of blame to go around here: Big-screen TVs, people’s busy lives, 3D movie prices, film quality overall, but I think there’s a major component that never gets blamed: The failure of film advertising.

When I was 15 I knew the release dates for all the movies I was interested in. I saw a trailer in a theater maybe two months before the movie, saw the first TV ad a month later along with some billboards, and I had just enough time to get interested before it was out in at least one theater near me.

Now I first hear about a movie at least six months out. In the really egregious cases it can get up to two years. (We’re all sick of *The Avengers*, right?). By the time the thing comes out, I’ve got so much trailer fatigue and actor fatigue that more often than not I skip the thing. I suspect this happens more than anyone realizes.