Disney & Marvel’s Exclusive ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ Theatrical Trailer Plan is Secretly Brilliant

Disney and Marvel have launched a clever marketing strategy for Avengers: Doomsday. For the past two months, everyone has known the first trailer would debut before the film Avatar: Fire and Ash, which is a year before Avengers: Doomsday is released. Now, they’ve added a new twist: instead of just one trailer, there will be four short teasers, each shown for one week during the first month that Avatar: Fire and Ash is in theaters.

Despite rumors, Disney isn’t using the Avengers to artificially inflate ticket sales for Avatar: Fire and Ash. The Avatar films have already earned over $5.26 billion globally, proving their success doesn’t rely on the Avengers. This marketing strategy simply places the trailer for what’s expected to be 2026’s biggest film—Avatar: Fire and Ash—in front of audiences seeing 2025’s biggest film, Avengers: Doomsday, ensuring maximum viewership. This benefits Avengers: Doomsday and suggests Disney and Marvel have high expectations for a strong follow-up to Avengers: Endgame.

‘Avengers: Doomsday’ Continues Unique Marketing Push

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Releasing four different teaser trailers is the newest part of a huge marketing push for Avengers: Doomsday. It suggests the film will be incredibly large in scale. Not only is Doomsday releasing a trailer a full year before the movie comes out – just like The Force Awakens did – but the film is so ambitious that it requires multiple teasers to generate buzz. This strategy will help the movie stand out, not just from other Marvel Cinematic Universe films, but also from previous Avengers installments.

Marvel’s marketing for Avengers: Doomsday has been surprisingly effective. The announcement that Robert Downey Jr. would play Doctor Doom caused a huge reaction online and even made headlines on regular news sites. Their unusual five-hour livestream, where they slowly revealed the cast, was widely talked about – and watched! It became the second most popular video on YouTube in its first day, racking up 275 million views. Despite some concerns about Marvel’s recent performance, they clearly still know how to grab people’s attention. The fact that Avatar: Fire and Ash offers different experiences each week actually helps Avengers: Doomsday by creating buzz and hinting at the ambitious scale of Marvel’s plans. While some might call it a trick, it’s really just a well-made trailer – and trailers are designed to get people excited about a movie.

It’s common for new movie trailers to premiere alongside recently released films. For example, the trailer for Avatar: The Way of Water first appeared with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and this year, the Avatar: Fire and Ash trailer played before The Fantastic Four: First Steps. These trailers were then released online the following Monday. Director Christopher Nolan has also used this strategy, showing exclusive footage for The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, and The Odyssey only in IMAX theaters. This practice encourages people to visit cinemas, which is especially important given the current challenges facing traditional movie theaters. It also gets audiences to arrive early and enjoy a shared experience beyond just the main film.

Fans Are Upset… But is There a Good Reason?

Generally, showing the first trailer for Avengers: Doomsday only with screenings of Avatar: Fire and Ash before putting it online was a smart decision. However, some fans have reacted negatively, calling it a mistake. Part of this seems to stem from a sense of entitlement – a desire for instant access to trailers, unlike how fans had to wait in the past before the internet. It’s also a little ironic that some fans want to avoid spoilers in trailers, yet also demand immediate online releases. And even though they’re getting four teaser trailers, some still aren’t satisfied?

A common concern about releasing trailers only in theaters is that they’ll inevitably end up online. Marvel doesn’t want the first glimpse of Doomsday to be shaky, illegally recorded footage – and honestly, people shouldn’t be recording in theaters anyway, both because it’s piracy and it’s distracting! This isn’t a new strategy for Marvel. Currently, a five-minute preview of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is being shown before IMAX screenings of Sinners and One Battle After Another, and it’s not harming the film – in fact, it’s building excitement. The same could easily happen with Avengers: Doomsday.

Focusing on leaked footage misses the point. Even if a trailer appears online through unofficial sources, it doesn’t reduce the excitement when Marvel and Disney officially release it – especially since the official version is usually much higher quality. We’ve seen this before – the Avengers: Age of Ultron teaser leaked, but was still a massive hit when Marvel released it themselves. Leaked footage from events like Comic Con or IMAX previews simply doesn’t have the same impact as the official trailer. For example, did a shaky, low-quality recording of the Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer lessen the impact when the real trailer was released? It didn’t.

Okay, so here’s the deal: if you’re curious about the Avengers: Doomsday trailers, apparently you’ll get a sneak peek if you watch Avatar: Fire and Ash. But honestly, if you’re not interested in seeing Avatar: Fire and Ash even once, let alone to get to the trailers, that’s totally cool! No pressure at all. I’m guessing Marvel will just put all the trailers online eventually, probably after this month is over anyway.

2025-12-16 20:51

‘Avengers: Doomsday’ Continues Unique Marketing Push

Fans Are Upset… But is There a Good Reason?

Read More