J beat me to the punch. About two hours ago, I was on I Watch Stuff when I caught this post of the new Coen Brothers movie, Burn After Reading. I was just about to post the trailer on my blog, when I decide to run over to J's house and what do I see buy him posting the trailer. Fine. He can have it. For now. But since he asks the question as to why we're now seeing the red band R-rated trailers all the time, whereas in 2007 they showed up rarely, I kept thinking about it and wanted to venture a guess. I think it's the Internet [ed: you're a genius. Of course it's the Internet you idiot]. In the old days, the only showing for the trailers was in the theater, and so they had to make trailers that were green-band so as to not offend. With the Internet, though, they can effectively red band trailers, release them onto youtube or some other outlet, and let people self-select into watching them, thus avoiding the earlier problem of offending or enraging film viewers who didn't come into see Brad Pitt drop an f-bomb in a commercial.
But then that's kind of funny, isn't it, because what if they were coming to see a movie that had f-bombs? Presumably they wouldn't offend that crowd by showing red band trailers, would they? Hmmm. Good point. I don't know the answer to that one. I suspect part of it, too, was just the popularity of the earlier Knocked Up red band international trailer, (which was the first time I saw red band trailer), and the subsequent success of that film. In other words, their rising popularity is two things: (1) Judd Apatow's successful tender-yet-filthy-comedies formula, which used red bands to market and (2) a distribution network that would let you get these trailers out there (ie, internet) without having to impose the ads on people who don't want to see them (ie, self-selection).
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yeah, i assumed that a new distribution model, ie the internet, had to be the primary driver of their resurgence. i'm curious as to why it took so long though and like you why they weren't being shown before R-rated films in cinemas. This article says much of what you said but also that theater chains played some role in refusing to show them, so why make them I suppose, but that Regal has reversed that trend and will start playing them in theaters before appropriately themed R-rated movies.
Right. I think it had to be because they were worried about offending audiences. But what's paradoxical is that if they're in an R-rated film, then presumably they've already revealed a taste for R-rated content, and so wouldn't seem to object to an R-rated commercial. That's a real puzzle, and I can't figure out why. Unless it has something to do, maybe, with the costs of making a separate red band trailer. Why, too, would exhibitors object to showing these R-rated commercials when they're showing already R-rated films? Maybe the transaction costs of viewing each R-rated red band trailer are too high to justify, as the exhibitor is really left incurring all the costs if it offends someone. They'll walk out of their theater, for instance, if they're offended. But exhibitors do gain from red band trailers if it turns into committment to see a new R-rated film, so again it's not obvious. I don't know. I'm checking out your article link now, though.
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