THB #861: Trailer? I Hardly Know 'Er (Pt 2 of 3)

Okay… Part 1 set up today’s look at movie trailers through Aug 1 release dates. Obviously, I am not writing about every trailer, but I think I got the ones that need discussion this year.

I mislead a little (unintentionally) in explaining today’s trio of segments. To start with, I am pushing the final segments - The Winners!!! - to another column. The 2 segments I am doing today - Good Trailers That Did The Job and Trailers That Were Chasing An Audience They Just Couldn't Find - just took up too much space and energy themselves.

I suggested in THB #860 that I would be writing about the worst trailers of the year. But I will not be doing that. The idea of poking at “the worst” makes me uncomfortable. None of the trailers are bad. They are just a reflection of some problematic choices sometimes. Honestly, the trailer makers are f-ing amazing artists. I am trying to offer context in these pieces and slapping the trailers is really not the point.

Finally, I will close in the next Hot Button with the Best of Each Month 2026, followed by Trailer Of The Year (To Date) 2026. Thank you for your patience.

What becomes of 20-year-old IP? Well, Disney’s 20th Century division went back to the well with the main cast intact and a smart idea of what 20 years might do to this group. Meryl Streep’s Miranda and Stanley Tucci’s Nigel might as well have been frozen in amber. Anne Hathaway grew up well. And Emily Blunt remains her lovely, funny self. Was the story as satisfying? No. Were the stakes as high? No. But the trailer gave hungry audiences exactly what they wanted.

In this section, this one is the only one that is not seen as a huge hit… because we are used to $800m+ from Despicable Me and the Minions. This one is around $500m worldwide. But I would put a lot of this one on the timing. It launched just 13 days after Toy Story 5. The July 4 weekend is usually where this franchise lives, but it both caught a very odd 4th of July weekend on which the national day off was on Friday and there were national celebrations both on that Friday and Saturday. Holds have been solid, even against the Odyssey/Spidey waves. This film splits focus between broad physical comedy and a real passion for the history of movies, particularly the silent era. This trailer really works both sides. It’s the highest Rotten Tomatoes score of all 7 of the franchise films, but against Toy Story 5 on one side and Moana opening 9 days later, it suffered a bit at the box office, though not in the memories of viewers.

The #3 movie of the year so far (The Odyssey will pass it this weekend), it’s another huge success for the original Pixar franchise. This trailer does a pretty perfect job distinguishing between classic toy place and the zombie experience of personal screens. Really simple. Really clean. Made it a must for parents. Just about perfect.

This section reflects a level of frustration that I feel as increased in recent years. This is not the first year in which campaigns changed drastically as the films got closer to release. But I don’t remember a year in which it felt like it was happening as often or as clearly as it has this year. Some of them feel downright desperate… some less so, especially on closer examination in the fullness of time.

A Steven Spielberg Movie is an event. I’m just old enough to remember the last couple Billy Wilder films being released, Fedora and Buddy Buddy. The former was a kind of variation on Sunset Blvd and the latter was another attempt at a buddy comedy with Lemmon and Matthau. Neither really worked. Be clear, I am not suggesting that Disclosure Day is a Spielberg swan song, though he is 79 and Wilder’s last was at 75… 75 was a lot older then than 79 is now.

I guess my point is that the greatest directors with a large body of work get to a point where every release is special. Disclosure Day is Spielberg’s 7th film since his last big moment, Lincoln… 7 films in 14 years… still prolific.

Universal gave Spielberg all the runway any director could ask for.

First, there was a teaser for the holiday movie season…

Then there was a Super Bowl spot…

Then, the official trailer…

And in each new release, there was a bit more footage. But mostly, it was the same things over and over, Emily clucking, the car, the train, the eyes, and very small bits of information added… new shots that were clearly children of Spielberg and Kaminski… though added info was often unexplained as to meaning or function.

Then there was “The Final Trailer.” Now we have Spielberg himself explicitly explaining his beliefs and the movie. Mostly, it was the same beautiful footage and same lines of dialogue. But then it basically gives away the 3rd act of the movie. “This is the alien arrival movie you have been looking for!”

But the problem remained. I mean, Fan Team Spielberg - of which I am a member - showed up hungrily. $45 million is a decent, if unexciting, opening.

I think “we” underestimate the public sometimes. The truth of Disclosure Day, whether you love it or hate it, is that the movie is not about what happens when alien life is disclosed to exist in the world and on earth. It’s a thriller about secret government agencies trying to stop the disclosure and some people who feel deeply compelled (often beyond their own understanding) to expose this truth. And that is what the trailers tell us over and over and over again… even the final, slightly desperate trailer that actually shows us the alien.

Spielberg and his crew still deliver a beautiful film. He hired some of the best and best-liked actors. But in 2026, a movie’s revelation that alien life exists is the end of a first act, not the end of the movie. And for all the flash and love of Steven, potential ticket buyers at the scale that was expected for this film felt that something was not quite what they desired.

Allow me this self-indulgence… this was a bit like Obsession ending after Bear snaps the One Wish Willow, he and Nikki end up kissing on his bed, she “wakes up” and freaks for a second, and he ends up sleeping on the floor, next to the bed. The audience knows what happened. It’s weird, but we get it. And now, we want to find out what happens next. That is what really affects us. But that is not in this movie.

Some compared Disclosure Day to Three Days of the Condor, but in that film, it’s one person who finds everyone he works with dead and is trying to figure out what is going on while avoiding being killed himself. It’s personal. And it is a mystery for him and us, as the audience. It would be a very different movie if the Robert Redford character knew there was a video of Nixon hiring someone to kill Kennedy and he had it and “they” were trying to keep him from getting it to the New York Times. But even that… the audience can easily imagine what would happen if something like that was exposed. Disclosure Day proposes a reality and we really don’t know how humans would react… or for that matter, how the aliens would react. That is the mystery we want to see unfold, not figuring out what connects Emily and Josh.

But I digress…

This is a movie I was surprised and pleased to find really sweet and charming. But whatever the magic potion was to make audiences interested, Lionsgate could not find. I have 2 trailers here, as you can see the change in strategy pretty clearly from Official Trailer to Official Trailer 2. The first leans into the making of the song, which is a lovely part of the film. But the main story, of the Rudd character trying to deal with the theft of his song, is a tag more than the driver. So the second trailer starts with the focus on “that’s my song.” But there was really nothing they could do. This movie is about the journey, not any one of the story points. How do you convey that and sell the movie in 2 minutes? The pull quotes are not extreme or misleading. The RT score is an honest assessment… but RT has become so abused as a marketing tool that it’s not much more than a distraction.

In some ways, a movie like this just needed to get lucky, finding a date that cradled it in a way that couldn’t really be predicted and some kind of outside traction for the song… a moment when audiences needed a change of flavor. $3.4 million… one of those movies that a studio really cares for in-house but just can’t find the moment.

The teaser for The Bride! started off with a lot of energy. The primal scream. “Here Comes The Mother Fucking Bride!” Take it or leave it. No direct mention of Frankenstein, aside from a “Frankie” amidst some violence. The closing head in the jar, one last shot at a movie and a character demanding attention.