15 Movie Trailers You Won't Believe Were Allowed To Exist
Batman + Nickelback = worst TV spot ever.
As far as movie studios are concerned, marketing is arguably more important than the quality of a film itself.
Sell a movie to a mass audience the right way and you've got a billion-dollar smash on your hands regardless of critical reception (looking at you, Transformers), but get it wrong, and even a great movie will flop (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, for example).
Though the overwhelming majority of these 15 movies were indeed box office hits, it's pretty hard to believe this considering how badly they were sold to audiences.
By either spoiling the entire movie before you even set foot in the cinema, suggesting an entirely different style and tone to the end product or straight-up lying about the plot and characters, these egregiously awful trailers got these films, good or bad, off on the totally wrong foot.
That they largely overcame their terrible marketing and proved successful was, in most cases, miraculous, especially as many of these films actually spawned mammoth franchises...
15. The Rhino Fight (That Never Happened) - The Amazing Spider-Man 2
The trailers for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 made it clear that the movie was going to repeat Spider-Man 3's mistakes by overdosing on villains, with Green Goblin (Dane DeHaan), Electro (Jamie Foxx) and Rhino (Paul Giamatti) getting significant billing in most of the marketing.
Hell, the majority of the trailers even concluded with the undeniably awesome slow-motion sequence of Spidey (Andrew Garfield) flinging himself towards a fully kitted-out Rhino while using a manhole cover to deflect the baddie's artillery barrage.
This screams "go see the movie and watch what happens next"...except the final shot in the trailer is actually the final shot in the movie...and the Rhino fight doesn't actually continue beyond the climactic image of Spidey flying close to the screen.
The implication here was clear, but instead fans were left with a major case of blue balls as the credits rolled...made even more painful when you consider that the planned sequel never even happened. Disgraceful.