MovieChat Forums > It's a Wonderful Life (1947) Discussion > No WONDER This Flopped!

No WONDER This Flopped!

posted 7 years ago by [email protected] (1732)
20 replies | jump to latest

I have read this was a box office disappointment when released in December of
'46. Hard to imagine, given its cast, script and director.

But for the first time in my life, I saw the original trailer. Simply terrible. This
trailer displays not a shred of what this unique story encompasses, and just
tells potential paying customers that basically it's about a wonderful town, and
wonderful people. Nothing more. It's so uninviting. Really, one of the worst
trailers I've ever seen.

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[–] captainbucky (15252) 7 years ago

No, you can not give a trailer a rating because thats not correct procdure

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[–] [email protected] (1732) 7 years ago

You are either drunk, stoned, developmentally disabled or just plain stupid.

I am NOT "rating" the trailer, you twit. I am merely pointing out how a good trailer is needed to bring people into
a film. IAWL is a classic, terrific film, and the trailer is awful. Had people really known how moved they would've
been, the film might've done better.

And there's no such things as "procedure" on this board.

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[–] captainbucky (15252) 7 years ago

I am not drunk sirI I am simply saying that you can't blame a movie flopping house on the fact that several years ago you think the trailer was bad. THere is no correct prodedure for rating catagorically and catologing movie trailers. Reputable movie sights such as rotten tomotato and IMDB do not rate movies as such. There are no awards for movie trailers only video game trailers. If a movies success was based on the trailer no ONE SINGLE person would have seen trainsformer movies (Especically the ShiloBeuf ones) because we can all agree as a hole that those were bad bad bad trailers

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[–] [email protected] (1732) 7 years ago

You are wrong. But judging from your poor grammar/typing, as well as your mentioning "Transformers" (NOT
"Trainsformers"), I'm not surprised by your slow wit and ignorance.

Of COURSE a good trailer doesn't guarantee success (I never wrote that it did), but a poor trailer CAN ruin
a movie. And like it or not, the IAWL trailer is extremely poor, and offers ZERO about the themes and
story of the film.

You stand corrected.

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[–] captainbucky (15252) 7 years ago

I was just saying that the Transormer Robot traiilers are always bad and they make those movies hella profitable, even though they are not good even.

Trailers back then were a whole different ball game cause of no internet and yOutube. You got to see it once on the TV there if you were lucky.

I am not corrected

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[–] [email protected] (1732) 7 years ago

There are TONS of wonderful trailers, dating back to the beginnings of film.

You've been corrected, only you don't know it. You also cannot spell to save your life.

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[–] [deleted] 7 years ago

I just watched the original trailer and I agree with you it does not capture the essence of the movie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXsu5XArEUw

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[–] [email protected] (5854) 7 years ago

Never saw the trailer for 'It's a Wonderful Life'. That was way before my time. But I have seen trailers which really piqued my interest and made me want to see the movie. I've also seen trailers that I thought were so dumb that I didn't want to see the movie! lol

One trailer I recall was from the film Arachnophobia. John Goodman was at the height of his "Roseanne" popularity and the trailers featured him. It appeared to be a silly, lighthearted comedy about spiders. Didn't have any interest in seeing it. I saw the movie quite a while later on TV. I was surprised to find out that it starred Jeff Daniels and it wasn't a comedy. It had a lot more going for it than just laughs. John Goodman was only in about ten minutes, but the trailers made him look like the star of the film.

So, yeah, trailers can be misleading.

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[–] [email protected] (1732) 7 years ago

The trailer for IAWL is way before my time also. I watched it on the DVD somebody loaned me. It's also available
on Youtube, as are tons of trailers, for movies old and new.

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[–] [email protected] (5854) 7 years ago

" ...way before my time also" Oh yeah, I figured you were younger than a thousand! lol

Actually I love movie trailers. Sometimes when I go to the theater to see a film, the trailers turn out to be the best part.

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[–] [email protected] (1732) 7 years ago

I enjoy trailers, too - but not seven or eight! Two or three would be fine for me, but when they screen eight
trailers (many, of which, run three or four minutes), plus show endless ads, warnings to shut off your cell,
how much better the feature would be with a visit to the concession stand, and three reminders that I'm
enjoying an "AMC Theatre", I feel spent BEFORE the feature begins.

I usually go in at the last minute to avoid all this.

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[–] [email protected] (5854) 7 years ago

LOL I rarely go to the movies, but they DO overdo the ads and trailers.

I'm thinking of the ad, "Let's all go to the lobby and have ourselves a snack." If I want jujubes or popcorn, I don't need someone to tell me!

I do like movie trailers though. Many years ago I used to watched a Saturday night "Chiller Theater" when I was in college. The host of the show loved movie trailers. One night he showed a bunch of trailers for horror films. You know the type, "House of Blood", etc. The trailers were more interesting than some of the B movies that he showed.

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[–] Professional Tourist (37) 7 years ago

I just watched the original trailer and I agree with you it does not capture the essence of the movie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXsu5XArEUw

I agree that the original trailer does a poor job of conveying what is most interesting about the film. This modern approach does an admirable job, I think, of illustrating the premise and sampling the drama:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDcVycz0OHM

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[–] [deleted] 7 years ago

much better

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[–] GlenEllyn (21526) 7 years ago

Modern trailer is much better although I didn't care for the music.

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[–] [deleted] 7 years ago

the modern trailer is much better

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDcVycz0OHM

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[–] strntz (12224) 7 years ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDcVycz0OHM

OH MY GOD!!!

I've seen this movie dozens of times and now I want to watch it NOW!!!!

All kidding aside, that trailer is spectacular, but I wonder if it is so because it works better today. In other words, I wonder how it would have affected audiences back in the late 40s.

In any case, OP makes a good point that the trailer does a disservice to the film. Whether or not it hindered the box office performance is another story.

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[–] [deleted] 7 years ago

we usually watch this on Christmas Eve.

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[–] GreenGoblinsOck8 (7699) 7 years ago

I agree. But it might have to do with the era it came out in. Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man had a similar trailer with just a few images of the movie with huge text covering most of it.

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[–] Keelai (34858) 6 years ago

The original trailer isn't honest about the plot (lighthearted romance) and the modern trailer gives away the entire plot. I don't like either. Movie's great though.

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