What factors go into determining what trailers are played before movies?

Question

As we all know, the most exciting part of seeing a movie is the trailers of upcoming movies before the actual film (note, this is coming from an American point of view, I am uncertain if this occurs in theatres everywhere).However, there doesn't *seem* to be much of a forethought given to what trailers are shown, besides making sure big movie trailers are shown before other big movies. For instance, the idea of seeing a *Dark Knight Rises* trailer before *Avengers* (two different production companies, let alone two rival comic book companies) doesn't seem to make much sense to me.Is there a strict guideline trailers are released controlled by the MPAA or do the theatres have free run of what to show?

Answer 1

I think the answer is in more dept with the stakeholders geared toward the ROI for the intended release. I imagine the MPAA does have some limited control when a movie could or should be released. However, I would think it would be based on metrics gathered by "The Numbers, Nash Information Services, LLC" this would entice a movie production to release its trailers in a optimum time period to gain the most return. I am sure there are other sources this one just came to mind.

Trailers in my humble create opinion have gone overboard. I would rather just see a movie title and single image such as poster with title, cast and crew and leave the story telling to theater. In today's trailers you tend to watch the movie before your even go to theaters.

https://www.the-numbers.com/research-analysis