Entertainment has provided society with an elusion from reality that may be distressing and out of joint. It intends to amuse and interest the audience. It may also be a potent medium to create awareness or educate people by conveying a strong message to society.
It also sparks up curiosity among the viewers who must watch the movie to know the complete story. These clips are in the form of trailers and teasers, two often very closely related terms.
Key Takeaways
- Trailers are short videos or clips that provide a glimpse of a movie, TV show, or video game to entice audiences and promote the product; teasers are even shorter previews designed to generate excitement and anticipation for an upcoming release.
- Trailers include footage from the product, while teasers may only show brief snippets or behind-the-scenes footage.
- Trailers are released closer to the productโs release date, while teasers may be released months in advance to build hype and generate buzz.
Trailer vs. Teaser
Trailers provide detailed information about the promoted content, released closer to the release date. A teaser is a shorter promotional video that provides a glimpse of the promoted content, designed to generate interest and build hype without revealing too much information.

Comparison Table
Parameter of Comparison | Trailer | Teaser |
---|---|---|
Length | It extends up to 1 to 2 minute | It is less than a minute long |
Intent | It is intended to give the audience a glimpse of what the movie is going to be about | It is intended to tease the audience and create lust and anticipation among the audience. |
Number | A movie has about 2 to 3 trailers | For a particular movie, there are more teasers than the trailers |
Time of creation and release | A trailer is created, and after the shoot for the movie is completed | It is created and released before the start or during the shooting of the movie |
Scheme | Trailers provide a lot of information about the storyโs plotline and highlight the movieโs key theme. | Teasers reveal very little, almost negligible information regarding the movieโs plot. |
Structure | Trailers have a 3 โ act structure, starting with Act I-the premise, followed by Act II, which is the continuation of the story and ends with Act III-the climax. | Since teasers have a very short duration, they do not have any structure. |
Releases | Trailers are mostly a part of movies only | Besides movies, teasers are also used to promote other big releases, including music videos and albums. |
History | The first trailer was shown in an American theatre in November 1913 for the short film โThe Pleasure Seekers. | One of the early examples of the teaser is the 1978 Superman film by Richard Donner. |
What is Trailer?
A trailer is a promotional feature consisting of a set of clips or scenes from the movie, giving rise to the viewersโ curiosity. It provides a shallow idea about the storyโs plot and theme in a span of 60 to 120 seconds and may have two or three parts to it.
Trailers are aimed at giving an in-detail idea of the movie that would cater to the taste of its audience and are therefore created and introduced only after the complete shooting of the movie.

What is Teaser?
A teaser is an advertising device that intends to arouse interest and tease the audience besides announcing the movieโs release and last for less than a minute. It does not provide any insights or details regarding the theme or plotline of the story.
There are more teasers for a particular movie than trailers. Besides movies, teasers can also be a part of other big releases like song albums and music videos.

Main Differences Between Trailer and Teaser
- The biggest difference between a trailer and a teaser lies in their duration. While on the one hand, trailers last from 1 to 2 minutes, teasers are kept short and are less than a minute long. This makes up the basis of many other differences between the two.
- The trailer gives much more details about the story-line than a teaser which hardly succeeds in explaining anything valuable about the movie and is made to tease the audience

- https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-15-0751-9_62
- https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=NBOFIdchEQYC&oi=fnd&pg=PA195&dq=Trailer+and+Teaser+&ots=9CmCpRwtWd&sig=VguzslVJM_iaQup7Kdh1xLVcCKU&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Trailer%20and%20Teaser&f=false
Piyush Yadav has spent the past 25 years working as a physicist in the local community. He is a physicist passionate about making science more accessible to our readers. He holds a BSc in Natural Sciences and Post Graduate Diploma in Environmental Science. You can read more about him on his bio page.