A big part of filmmaking in Hollywood is marketing. Movies cost a considerable amount to make, and, as a result, studios need to earn money from their investment. This means that studios have to find a way to sell their films to audiences to convince them to pay money to see these films. Many movie trailers have become more iconic than the movie itself.

Bridge to Terabithia is, for example, well known for being mis-marketed as a whimsical family adventure aimed at children before being revealed to actually be a story about children dealing with a tragic event in their lives. The Cloverfield movie also had a pretty iconic trailer as it showed what seemed like another found footage movie that probably would have been thought to just be an ordinary horror film, only for it to be revealed to be something much bigger. In particular, the trailer was well known for its shot of the Statue of Liberty’s head falling. This iconic image became the center of all the movie posters surrounding the film.

One piece of clever marketing that the film Rings used was attaching a prank video with the trailer, with the phrase “Watch it, and then you die.” This sort of marketing allowed the film to go viral in a pretty massive way. But not all marketing pieces are true to what the film will be like. In fact, sometimes the film that ended up being released turns out to be really disappointing or really awful. Here are films that match this.

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10 The Last Airbender

     Paramount Pictures

Based on the iconic cartoon of the same name, there was a decent amount of excitement after the trailer for The Last Airbender dropped. It gave us what seemed to be a very accurate adaptation of the beloved series — which was quite different from what was expected of live-action adaptations of animated works. Before, the only thing people had to compare the film to was Dragonball: Evolution, which ended up being a messy film that was not accurate to the original series in any way, shape, or form. So, seeing a movie that seemed to be trying to stay closer to the original gave Avatar fans a lot to be excited for. However, as other people noted, the director was M. Night Shyamalan, who has a streak of making bad films for audiences. And this ended up being a correct worry: the film turned out poorly, with many people criticizing many aspects, from the whitewashing casting choices to the performances and the less-than-exciting bending sequences.

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

9 Ghost in the Shell

This science fiction story known as Ghost in the Shell, based on the popular Japanese anime, was disliked by many critics when it came out. Many compared the film to Blade Runner and other AI-like films. The film was seen as unoriginal, and Scarlett Johansson was miscast in the role. There was also quite a lot of controversy before the movie came out with the whitewashing of a Japanese character and having all the Asian actors in the film play only minor roles. This was worsened when those who saw the film found that a lot of that controversy was built right into the DNA of the story, giving its own plot points away. Still, despite this, the film managed to be the first Japanese anime adaptation film to garner a big budget and was better received than many other live-action adaptations of the past. Dragonball: Evolution only managed a 15% and is universally hated, while some critics did praise to Ghost in the Shell for its attempts to stay true to the DNA of the original anime.

8 Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief

     20th Century Studios

Created due to the success of the novels, Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief was meant to be the next Harry Potter as Hollywood tried to make a stream of YA novels into feature films. There was definitely a growing market for such films as shown by Twilight and Hunger Games, but, sadly, Percy Jackson was never able to reach their extreme heights. Percy Jackson only managed two films, which were both critical failures, with its sequel not making enough money to break even — which revealed that even audiences had rejected the film.

7 Eragon

Before this fantasy epic came to the screen, people were excited. The trailer for the film promised an amazing big adventure similar to The Lord of the Rings. Sadly, the reality was Eragon was a drag to get through. The special effects for the film were quite messy and much of the characterization throughout the film was very one-note, with a plot that meanders around to the end. And unlike Percy Jackson, many audiences have long since forgotten the film’s existence. While Percy Jackson had similar structural issues to Eragon, at least it had strong performances and good direction. Eragon has none of this. And a bland performance makes for an overall bland-feeling movie.

6 Justice League (2017)

     Warner Bros.

Also known as “Josstice League” by fans online, this iteration of Justice League was filled with controversy before it came out due to Zack Snyder’s departure from the project. Still, with Joss Whedon taking over the film after his success with the first two Avengers films, there seemed to be a lot of hope for Justice League to be great. And the trailers for this film seemed like they were going to give us an amazing treat. With their signature DC-style of giving fans awesome rock music, like “Come Together” by Gary Clark Jr, and some really solid humor of the team working together, there was quite a lot of reason to have hope for the new film. Sadly, this excitement ended up being a blunder as the film was very uneven and messy due to the two directors having clashing styles.

5 X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Probably one of the biggest disappointments of the X-Men franchise, X-Men Origins: Wolverine was written during the infamous writers strike of 2007. As a result, many films ended up being shelved or canceled altogether. However, some films were released in that period with less-than-stellar scripts. This film was one of those films that had been immensely affected. Despite the issues behind the scenes, the film still managed to have an amazing trailer that was able to excite audiences. The film promised a deep look into the character’s history, and could even be the building blocks to more X-Men Origin films. But sadly, the film failed, both critically and financially. Despite this, Fox still saw profit in the character and greenlet The Wolverine and Logan as the next major outings for the mutant hero.

4 X-Men: Apocalypse

This X-Men film had an even stronger trailer than X-Men Origins: Wolverine did. More than that, it promised to be a deep, complex look at humanity and society as a whole. This film also looked to have an amazing rendition of Oscar Issac’s Apocalypse. Sadly, the film doesn’t live up to fan expectations, and instead of a deeply complex film, we got an overly simplistic bland superhero film, with a villain spouting lines you may have heard in every other X-Men film ever. X-Men: Apocalypse has a 47% on Rotten Tomatoes with many critics talking about how cliché it is.

3 Spider-Man 3

     Columbia Pictures

Spider-Man 3 had one of the most epic teasers at the time it came out, as it got fans excited about the coming of the black suit and the possibilities for Venom. The black suit was one of the coolest moments for the web-slinger in the comics, and the Spider-Man cover has become entwined with the history of the character. As a result, there was a lot of excitement around this film. Unfortunately, it ended up disappointing audiences and critics, as Sam Raimi ultimately delivers a messy script that needs quite a bit of fine-tuning.

2 Suicide Squad

     Warner Bros. Pictures

When David Ayer’s name was placed on Suicide Squad, there was a lot of interest in what the director would pull off. The director was coming off movies like Fury and End of Watch that showed audiences that he had a knack for creating interesting dynamics between characters. And all the trailers for the film showed a really exciting and fun film that felt similar to Guardians of the Galaxy, with amazing songs like “You Don’t Own Me” by Grace or “Purple Lamborghini” by Skrillix. Of course, the film didn’t live up to expectations: we ended up getting a poorly edited film that felt more like a long music video than a cohesive story.

1 Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

     Warner Bros

The biggest disappointment out of DC films. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice had the perfect trailers to get fans of the DC brand excited about this film. Giving us a glimpse into a brutal Batman, and a Dark Knight Rises-styled plot, this trailer would go on to become more iconic than the film itself. Even to this day, people enjoy quoting the trailer’s iconic lines, such as, “Is she with you?” and “The red capes are coming.” Many superhero fans believed that this would be Snyder’s best film, but the reality was, once the film was released, it created a division in the fandom, with some people believing the film to be the greatest superhero film of all time, while others were extremely disappointed. The film was boring and unnecessarily long. On top of that, it also had real structural issues within its pacing, and an ending that is, still to this day, being meme’d for the ridiculousness of the concept. Overall, it’s a less than stellar film that doesn’t live up to the title it has given itself nor its amazing trailers.