This is topic RETURNING TRAILERS in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by James R. Hammonds, Jr (Member # 673) on 03-26-2001, 01:39 PM:
My theatre never ships trailers back to the distributors because of shipping costs (not even to warner or paramount) directly.instead we put them back in the cans.
i was wondering if this is something we should do, because many of these films go straight to other theatres and the trailers wind up there.
if we do this, should we only send back the unused trailers since they will probably not want to send out an old trailer?
Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 03-26-2001, 01:48 PM:
Sony, Paramount, Warners and Fox all provide free shipping labels, so what "shipping costs" do you mean? Throw'em in a box and ship'em out!Putting the trailers in the film can probably would result in them getting to another theatre, but the chances that theatre will actually need the trailers you ship this way are minimal.
I personally wonder if the trailers that ARE shipped back are sent out again. In the past three years I don't think we've received even one "used" trailer, even though we've played many movies off the break and have been unable to get trailers for some of them.
Posted by Mike Spaeth (Member # 524) on 03-26-2001, 02:21 PM:
My company sends ALL promotional materials to our discount houses. When I'm done with a trailer/poster/mylar, I ship it to Omaha, NE. What they do with it when they're done, I have no clue. It's a pretty good idea when you think about it...the discount houses don't have to turn around and buy materials.
Posted by Aaron Mehocic (Member # 15) on 03-26-2001, 03:57 PM:
We send back to Fox, Warner Brothers, Universal, and Paramount. UPS does our pickups. Warner Brothers requests that no more than six trailers to be sent back in one package. Our policy adopts WB's and we try to send only about a half dozen trailers back to the other studios at a time as well. Some operators appreciate used trailers in the can, but most are probably indifferent.
Posted by Ky Boyd (Member # 23) on 03-26-2001, 05:26 PM:
As an arthouse, we have to specifically order most of the trailers we need. We try to return 90% of our trailers - the other 10%, usually mainstream stuff we are shipped that we won't play - are sent to a theatre operator in a smaller market who can't ever seem to get trailers. We play used trailers all the time, but mostly the used trailers come from Consolidated and are for the smaller companies. If I have a Technicolor ARS label, I return all my Technicolor and NSS trailers regardless of studio - no one has ever complained about this.
Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 03-28-2001, 02:39 AM:
Dumb question- how do 2nd-run theaters show trailers? Do they program them the same way 1st-run theaters do only a few months behind to tell people what movies are on their way to their theater? (The only discount theater in the area closed recently and I never had a chance to find this out!)
I've only worked at 1st-run theaters, and my personal policy is not to show any that say "Coming Soon" when the movie has already come out. If a trailer is on a movie and the movie it advertises comes out, it goes off, unless it doesn't have a "Coming Soon" tag like most Columbia trailers in which case it gets to stay on for as long as the movie is playing. It must be awkward for 2nd-run theaters if they show trailers that say stuff like "Coming this November" when it's already January!
Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 03-28-2001, 08:58 PM:
>>It must be awkward for 2nd-run theaters if they show trailers that say stuff like "Coming this November" when it's already January!<<Which is precisely why I avoid running trailers of ANY kind in second run. Too difficult to edit and if there are voiceovers with dates, you might as well forget it.
Of course it isnt much better when you are a dollar house that finally gets to play 'A Christmas Story'... In MARCH! 
Been there, done that.
Aaron