What To Reveal While Marketing a Movie?

Warning: while not a review, the below might contain many immediate and explicit spoilers for the movie "Batman: The Dark Knight"
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When I first watched the new movie "The Dark Knight" I had no idea that Harvey Dent would turn into Two-Face midway through. I mean, I had considered the possibility. But, because of the marketing for the movie I had seen, I thought it was more likely they were setting him up as the villain for the third film. It was then a thrilling surprise for me when his Two Face persona became an integral part of the movie and I agree with the film makers that he added a much needed character development arch to "The Dark Knight".

After watching the film I felt compelled to go back and watch all the trailers I had deliberately chosen not to watch. You see, as some people know, once I decide I am going to watch a film I usually choose to not learn anything new about it. I do this because I believe that a movie becomes more enjoyable as more of it is discovered organically and not known before hand. In this case, the very first trailer was enough for me to decide I would watch this movie and I tried to stop watching any of the newer trailers.

I was surprised to see in the new trailers a very revealing 2 second clip of Harvey Dent with half his face being soaked in flammable gasoline. This basically let everyone know that Harvey would become Two Face. If I had seen it, it really would have made the movie less enjoyable for me. My first impressions after watching the movie was that the movie studio had struck a great balance in the way it marketed the film. I believed by not showing too much of Harvey Dent and focusing on the joker they enticed everyone to see the movie with Heath Ledgers sadistic and twisted performance while not revealing too much of the story.


I bet many producers and movie studio executives have an enormous stake in the success of their 100 million plus budget summer movies. It is no secret that most of these movies make (or lose) the majority of their investment back during the opening weekend. In addition, a lot of other decisions about a movies future financial success is decided by the considerable buzz generated by an impressive opening weekend. This includes merchandising, future dvd orders and dvd rental figures.


In light of all this, I guess the movie producers didn't care that much about holding back what happened to Harvey Dent because they probably knew it wouldn't stop people from seeing the film. If anything, it might have made people more excited. In addition, the obsessively dedicated fans of Batman (I am not one of those people) might have discovered this by themselves. However, what made me excited was the mystery around Harvey Dent. I could not tell while watching the film if he could be trusted and what they were going to do regarding his eventual transformation into Two Face. By revealing it, the movie studio has shown, in my mind, that I am correct in trying to avoid information about a movie. Most of the time movie studios can't be trusted in making sure all the surprises and crucial plot turns are left out of trailers and advertisements. I'm happy that I didn't see any of the newer trailers for The Dark Knight, it made the film that much more epic and enjoyable.