My personal feeling is that as long as a) the studio never asked for the trailer to be returned (i.e. the trailers are considered to be "abandoned property") and b) the film is available on videotape/DVD (i.e. it is "licensed for home viewing"), I don't have any moral or ethical issues with selling or purchasing trailers. Whether this is actually legal or not is another question, but no one seems to be making a big deal about the secondary market for movie posters, which are generally handled in the same way by the studios.

In general, donating old trailers to a second-run house seems to be the best approach, since it helps both the studio and the second-run theatre and it doesn't require the first-run theatre to pay shipping charges to return the trailers to the distributor. Ideally, the studios themselves would become involved in "trailer recycling," but we all know that this doesn't happen in most cases.

Obviously, if the studio specifically asks for trailers/posters/etc. to be returned, theatres should comply with the request.

And, yes, anyone who offers a complete print of a current film (or even trailers or posters of a current film)--which almost certainly is either stolen or nonexistant--in a public forum like Ebay is a complete idiot.

quote:

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Michael
The cost of a standard 35mm release print is no where near £15000 ($22000 US) more like a tenth of that .

For £15K you could "buy" a 45 minute 2D Imax print though

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hmmmm Someone told me before the rough figure 10 to 15k for a 35mm print. So it's more like 1 or 1.5 thousands pounds??

To me, this indicated that the studio didn't care if they got the trailers back or not, since they made no effort in conveying this message (no return labels, no notices included, etc.) and as Scott stated, "abandoned property."

So if the film's initial release date has passed, and the studio/distributor/depot abandoned the property, IMHO the studio shouldn't really have any scrouples with someone selling a month-old trailer for next to nothing. If it should fall into the hands of some Joe Blow from Idaho, he will most likely have no way of projecting or copying it. If it ends up in the hands of an indie or sub-run operator, then the studio gets free advertizing for their film with no shipping costs to them. Either are better than seeing how many trailers it takes to fill a dumpster.

I guess the general rule would be the fact that the film's release date has passed. Anyone selling "Men In Black II" or "XXX" trailers right now should be severely beaten about the face and neck.

And it has BIDDERS!

Be Afraid... Be VERY afraid...

Things like this pop up from time to time. A while back, someone was selling film cans. Nasty, dirty, banged up cans for $15 each which "may have shipped movies like Casablanca, Gone with the Wind and Titanic." *sigh*

And then there are the people selling film frames (or "cells") for hundreds of dollars, hacked "from an actual print of the movie"

I have like 60 of those "Slit Reels" in my theatre. At $5.95 I could get $357, wow! You don't think Technicolor would mind if I sent back all my prints without cores or reel flanges, do you?

Wow! At $21 I could make $1,260. I think I am going to join E-Bay and bid this pig to the moon.

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There's a nostalgia market for recycled reels, making them into clock faces, and the big 6,000' SS reels into cocktail table tops.

So the two bidders willing to pay $$ for a crappy TES reel are out of
their minds, not the seller, IMHO.

I coudn't sell the same reel for a buck, and deservedly so!

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