8 Ways Captain America: Civil War Shows Marvel Have Learnt From Their Mistakes

8. The Marketing Is Much Less Spoiler-y

Even before the cracks in Marvel's armour began to show, the MCU was having issues with its marketing. There were so many trailers, teasers for trailers, TV spots and moving posters (they're a thing now, apparently) that whatever the latest movie was felt incredibly overexposed well ahead of release and, more often than not, they'd reveal far too much in the process. You'd sometimes get a knock-out like Guardians Of The Galaxy, which had trailers that were not only entertaining, but also encapsulated the film itself, but even they got a little bit action-dominated and spoiler-heavy near the end of the campaign.

Age Of Ultron and Ant-Man showed the extremes of these problems, with the former giving up pretty much everything (if nothing quite as bad as Hulk saving Iron Man from the first Avengers) and the latter incredibly confused over what tone it was trying to strike. Of course, this looked to unfixable, because, if the movies were still making money, what does it matter to the studio if a few fans grumble?

Thankfully, Marvel appear to have actually listened to those fans (or, more likely, received marketing data that points to giving away the whole movie not being a prudent advertising tool) and are trying to fix this. Civil War not only started its marketing push later than normal, with the first widely released trailer hitting in late November (five months before release), but what was in that and subsequent teases felt incredibly measured, aiming to hint without giving too much away. Doctor Strange only continued this, with its teaser released with a shorter-than-average lead-in and very light on proper details. Keep it up, guys.