TLJ Second Trailer. When and Where ??

Posted this on the other thread, but it absolutely applies here: we have no reason to be worried, but Disney and LFL might be getting a little bit uptight right now, and as @cawatrooper suggested, it's more than likely that they've talked to Mark.

Disney and LFL executives right now aren't having a word with Mark Hamill - it wouldn't surprise me if this cover-up was his own idea - but they're getting very antsy in a boardroom right about now.

If that was the date, their campaign to promote it has just been thrown out of the window completely and is being rewritten as we speak, because the whole entertainment industry can either avoid, or, conversely, go against TLJ's final trailer with this foreknowledge.

Likewise, if it wasn't, they now have 70% of this fan BASE jumping around over nothing.

Say what you want about whether or not this matters, because the bottom line now is that whether or not the trailer is released that day, Disney are looking at millions potentially lost whether or not it still sticks with that date, potentially because of trailer competition, having to adjust dates and alter the campaign's timings, such as an appearance on GMA, for example, and moving the trailer could cost them millions in opening weekend box office.

What a mess. I can understand that it's been a rough year for Mark after Carrie passed at the end of last year - it has been for many of us fans, so I could hardly imagine how he feels - but all of this after his initial comments on how Luke was dealt with by Rian Johnson and the story group puts him in potentially a poor position, mane not with us fans, but possibly with some LFL and Disney executives.

 

Mark would possibly get a little verbal admonishment about joking with fans on twitter and that's it.

You guys are taking this WAY too seriously. And hopefully in month, will look back on this like "wow, did I totally overreact."

 

If there is a trailer for the MNF game, what does that change if Mark says it or not ?

BTW, I'm not sure Mark knows about the LFL agenda ... His job is done and dude likes trolling, he did that already for the SW Comic named the last jedi.

People are getting this too much seriously.

 

Not sure what you mean.
I mean, it'd be great if there was a trailer. I've accepted, also, that it's not entirely likely. My issue is that regardless of intent- joke, troll, tease, whatever- anything outside of earnest attempt at cluing us into a trailer (assuming he had innocent intent) is kind of a reckless thing to do, from a PR stance. I mean, look at all the disgruntled fans now. Seems like the people who aren't even mad are still rolling their eyes at Mark's tweet. It's not an enviable position for your fanbase to be split between angry people and those who actually expect to be lied to, especially when your movie doesn't have a proper trailer yet.

And yeah, I'm sure Star Wars can turn it around. Again, it's absolutely not a good position to be in, but I don't feel so doom and gloom about this to think that it'll absolutely have some lasting effect on the film's release. I'm sure that, with proper handling, we'll all have long forgot about this incident by the time the movie rolls around.

Know what could help with making us forget, by the way? A friggin trailer release!...

Oh, and I'm sure you're right about Hammil not totally being in on the entire LFL agenda, but it's not uncommon for actors (particularly leads) to know a trailer premier date. Especially in this day of social media, it helps them be in a good position to help promote the film- and as we've seen from this very example, sometimes people need coaching on how to properly use social media.

 

@Bandini @LarsSkywalker whilst it might seem like that, I think some intriguing points have been raised about what this could mean for the film's marketing campaign and box office performance. Likewise, I'm sure many of us will be willing to forgive our overreactions after we have seen the trailer and all is riding smoothly, because the truth is, LFL has been in a real mess in recent months, and it seems like, to some, including myself, that this is the straw that breaks the camel's back.

Like I've said, tens of millions of dollars are potentially being lost or gained by Disney if the trailer drops at the right time, garners the right sort of attention, and therefore results in more ticket sales, and is imperative to a great opening weekend. That's taken almost as a fact at this point. But very little attention is paid to how and why Disney spaces out marketing for films with major blockbuster potential in the way that it does, and yet I would argue that this is the key to the early box office success of many of their films.

Appearing on GMA isn't cheap, even if owned by Disney, and even if only thirty seconds are being shown. These thirty seconds could be used elsewhere, such as thirty seconds more talking to a guest, or be used to promote some odd book or product from which they can benefit. The truth is, anyone plugged in and interested in the film enough will have heard about a trailer probably dropping on the 9th thanks to social media beforehand, and so if a GMA teaser drops on the 7th or 8th? It's a "well, duh" situation - those teasers are rarely ever well-received - and Disney has spent money - by ways of using this time to highlight TLJ as opposed to something else - advertising a product (the trailer in this instance) which won't get many more people into theatres opening night?

Meaning?

Meaning that millions are potentially left on the table marked "Opening Weekend" simply because this time and money wasn't exerted towards TLJ's promotional efforts in some other unexpected way which would have got more casual moviegoers to go opening weekend, and so on and so forth.

Also, @cawatrooper has absolutely hit the nail on the head. Whether or not the trailer comes out that date is irrelevant: the PR stance is that either Mark Hamill is now lying/trolling fans, again, or Disney, the untouchable box office juggernaut, had something as simple as a trailer release date casually earmarked on Twitter by one of their own. Good luck spinning that in a way that works for everyone.

 

Dude. Chill. The same thing happen with Mark's Pop Culture Quest Episode 8 "trailer."

It's a lame "dad" joke that Mark's known for.

You're right that LucasFilm is going through a lot with Miller and Lord and Trevorrow debacle.

But this twitter thing is a drip in the bucket compared to those other Niagra Falls type problems.

This is no "straw that broke the camels back."

Look around the net. No one is taking this joke as seriously as you.

 

In reference to "the straw that breaks the camel's back", I was speaking from personal experience. This has seemed to rub myself and a few others the wrong way here who managed to stay optimistic despite LFL's recent worries.

Like I said, there seems to be no real PR spin to put on this that makes us fans feel particularly good ("Mark said you get a trailer this date, we didn't plan to release it then, but we will just to keep you happy" or "Nope, no trailer today, sorry") about this situation.

If it seems that I'm being way too serious than I probably am - the truth is I've had a stressful day, and this is probably my way of venting - so apologies if I'm coming off as such.

 

Yeah, I think you and I are mostly on the same page in that we consider this "bad PR, but ultimately easily fixable if the right actions are taken". If we're coming across as overly reactive to it, that's probably just do to the inability to really add emphasis on the internet.

I do think a lot of fans probably are pretty upset now, though. There's been no lack of unrest about this trailer, and I think some people are starting to feel like we're chasing a carrot on a stick.

Basically, I'd say this could be a case of really bad timing.

 

I do not have any problems saying that I'm one of those people. And it is an really frustrating feeling to carry around.

 

I kind of hate you for reminding me of that...Zod that pissed me off.

JJ at some point said no trailer

Appearing on GMA is free. Showing a trailer during MNF is free.

You're confusing advertising versus appearances. They aren't cutting down on commercial time in order to release a trailer.

The whole point of releasing a trailer on GMA or MNF is to bring in a larger number of viewers than the program usually receives, thus raising the price they charge advertisers while incurring basically zero costs.

They might show the trailer then go straight to commercial break, but ABC or ESPN is counting that as programming, not advertising.

The later, shorter TV ads during a football game on ESPN (like in November and December) have to be paid for, but a premier of a trailer is synergy, not paid advertising.

 

I know we are all excited for a trailer, but seriously, we need to take everything we hear about it with a grain of salt, just like we do with "leaked" spoilers.

 

It was around this time two years ago when this forum was filled with arguments about how Disney didn't know what they were doing with the marketing of The Force Awakens, and how by not releasing the final trailer they were damaging the film's box office take. Whatever else you may think about Disney, their marketing department is absolutely top of the industry. They unquestionably know what they are doing.

It's a trailer - it doesn't make a bit of difference whether or not the industry avoids it. All Disney needs in one day of heavy publicity from the trailer - and they will get that. The reason they keep the date secret is because they can. There's no benefit to announcing a trailer release date more than a couple of days in advance, so why commit to a date ahead of time? What if some major new story breaks that week - say a hurricane hitting the East Coast for example - and Disney decides at the last minute they want to wait another week to show the trailer? If they don't publicly commit to a date, there won't be an outraged fan base if they decide to change it.

Not even 70% of the members of this forum are "jumping around" - and we are the among the hardest of the hardcore. The vast majority of the fan base won't worry about Hamill's tweet if they even hear about it at all.

You're only going to be upset about this if you're feeling very impatient to see the trailer. And you're only feeling impatient to see the trailer if you're a hardcore Star Wars fan. And hardcore Star Wars fans are going be excited to see the trailer whenever it drops, and are going to see the movie no matter what. There's no bad PR to clean up. If anything, this only serves to build anticipation for the trailer.

 

@bigbayblue that conversation has, more-or-less, been dropped, but I welcome your views.

I've mentioned elsewhere that I've had a particularly stressful day, and it seems that this is what I chose to redirect my stress towards, hence my most evident use of hyperbolic language, such as when I said that 70% of the fanbase were jumping around.

I think @cawatrooper captured pretty much how I feel about the situation at the moment very well

 

I still can't believe we haven't gotten a second trailer yet.

 

I remember both Hamill and Johnson both being reluctant and warning people about anything being released, it wouldn't surprise me if their input convinced Disney to hold back some marketing (I know outrageous theory)

 

DAMN YOU JOHNSON

 

Also, just for the record.

TFA's teaser/trailer/bts schedule was:
Teaser 1 - November 2014 (this one I think was the one JJ didn't want released, or Disney didn't want released, one of the two didn't want it released but the other convinced them to release it)
Teaser 2 - Celebration 2015 (April)
BTS - July
Trailer - October



TLJ's teaser/trailer/bts schedule:
Teaser - April (Celebration)
BTS - July
Trailer - ???

Pretty much same schedule so far.

 

Neither of them has that kind of leverage in Hollywood.

Hanks, Gibson, Cruise, Pitt, RDJ, Ryan Reynolds, Denzel, Jennifer Lawrence (maybe), Pratt, Benedict Cumberbatch, Affleck, Damon, Depp, Foxx, The Rock Vin Diesel, ScarJo, Willis, Baldwin, Fassbender, Colin Firth, Leo, Samuel L Jackson....all of them have way more power...how much input do you think they get on trailer content and timing?

Spielberg, Snyder, Gunn, Bay, Wright, Ridley Scott, Affleck, Scorsese, Ritchie, Ratner, Favreau, Whedon, Abrams, and Ron Howard

All those directors have 20x more power and prestige than RJ when he signed his deal with LFL.

Disney has final say over all LFL marketing but each one of the studios Disney owns receives some measure of independence regarding promoting films (for example: Pixar & Marvel don't treat their fans with contempt nor do they use the "pee on your leg and tell you it's raining strategy of releasing the same images 14 times in 8 weeks and pretending like they are news items).

RJ was very lucky to get this gig and to maintain control over postproduction. Hamill was humiliated by the marketing two years ago and his absence in TFA wasn't reflected in box office totals.

(I love Hamill and hope he gets his due as a film actor in TLJ & E9, but let's be honest about his stature the last 20 years).

Actors and directors who aren't producing a film too, (and I'm not talking about honorific Exec Producer/Producer in name only thing) rarely get included in the marketing planning process, let alone the full marketing calendar.

KK, the head of Disney marketing, and a few other people (one being JJ possibly...just because this idiotic patronizing strategy reeks of his nosehairspray) concocted this marketing strategy/24 month fan fleecing and likely have done little more than copy Hamill & RJ on emails that specify where they need to be, how they will get there, and what they must say.

 

You mean a first trailer.

That other thing from April, like girls back in my middle school, was just a teaser.

 

Yes, a teaser... trailer.