The differences between a teaser trailer and the main theatrical trailer

Here is my own explanation of what I believe are the main distinctions between a teaser trailer and the main theatrical trailer along with an example of each to further explain:

A teaser trailer is normally around 1 minute to 1 minute 30 seconds long and tends to be released a little while before the main theatrical trailer. The purpose of releasing a teaser trailer is to tease its audience by revealing to its target audience a little bit of the footage taken from the film so that it can get the audience interested in the film and encourage them to want to watch more. They will not reveal any significant details of the narrative of the film so that the audience are left in suspense wanting to know more. Teaser trailers are normally released online so they originally are only seen by an audience who are interested in films or happen to browse through film teaser trailers.

Here is an example of a film teaser trailer:


As you can see from this teaser trailer the editing is made to show a montage of different clips from the film all of which tease the audience so they are left wanting to know much more about the film.


The main theatrical trailer is released after the teaser trailer and tends to be much longer (normally around 2-3 minutes long) and is designed to reveal more scenes taken from the film so that its target audience is persuaded to go and watch the film at the cinema. The main theatrical trailer will reveal much more of the narrative than the teaser trailer will and is also played across a wider range of media such as TV and cinema advert screenings so more people tend to see this trailer than the teaser trailer.

Here is an example of a main theatrical trailer:


A you can see from this main theatrical trailer, the editing is much slower than the teaser trailer and scenes from the actual film are shown in greater detail and last a lot longer than seen in the teaser trailer. The length of the trailer itself is also a lot longer so more of the narrative can be given away, although both a teaser trailer and a main theatrical trailer will remain persuasive so that its audience will go and watch the film in full at the cinema.