How come it seems nobody really cared about spoilers as much before the 2010s?

[1924]

It’s clear though that back then nobody really cared about spoilers as much for whatever reason. Movie trailers basically summarized the whole movie in 3 minutes. Novelizations for blockbusters would hit stores a month or more before the movie came out. Critics like Siskel and Ebert would show off plenty of spoilerific clips with permission from the studio. On the Youtube comments for The Two Towers trailer you can see a lot of comments from likely younger people amazed that they “gave away” that Gandalf returns Or that the T2 trailer “gave away” Arnold being the good guy this time even though to the studio l, that would seem like the obvious selling point of the movie

[Member-244966]

There probably isn't any one reason, but nowadays it's so easy to catch spoilers unprompted. If you read a novelisation, trailer comments etc. spoilers will come with the territory. Last year I had both Parasite and Uncut Gems spoiled for me with zero warning, context, or with any meaningful to say. Kinda feels like it can come out of nowhere sometimes.

[Bumblefeet]

People cared, don't forget that movies would sometimes take half a year before premiering in foreign markets. Before social media, there were message boards such as this one that generally used spoiler tags. Of course there are always idiots who disregard that.

Back then you'd only have 1 trailer, not 4 different ones like movies nowadays.

Reviewers in general would only do spoiler free reviews; it was unheard of reviewing something giving away the ending.

Movie magazines are a different thing as they'd publish behind scenes pics and info often giving away plot points.

I would say today isby far the worst online. As a general rule I don't read threads, comments, tweets or watch reviews of a new movie as they often ruin the movie watching experience.

[Foggy]

Pretty much what’s said above, the internet pretty much became so accessible during the 2000’s, with information so quickly obtainable nowadays you can go onto your phone and just see what people are saying and read a whole synopsis of a film the day it’s out.

In regards to trailers, obviously now people can rewatch them and scrutinise over every detail. Back when Terminator 2 and Lord of the Rings was coming out, you didn’t have YouTube to see a trailer, you usually had to pay to see a movie and just see what was coming out. I think Robert Zemeckis said something about audiences not wanting any surprises with their films and wanting to know exactly what was going to happen in regards to the trailer for Cast Away, and whilst I don’t think that’s true, studios still live by it today. The only difference is that now, you reveal the ending of your film in a trailer, you are immediately met with criticism online by the audience.

So why are people now bothered about spoilers? They probably always were, just they didn’t have the means to be so vocal back then.

[XavierTheaterPotato]

I feel like it's just different now. Back then you could probably go online and not see a spoiler unless you went looking, as opposed to today where you ultimately have to avoid your phone at all times cause if you open it, you'll be spoiled by anything you're interested in at minute zero and it doesn't even matter where you'll be on the internet, it'll just be there somehow.

[moreorless]

In terms of TV it was less of an issue as delayed viewing/streaming was less of an issue and with cinema you had more of a culture of multiple viewings.

[Cremildo]

People did care about spoilers ( I know I did), it's just that social media, simultaneous international rollouts and shorter theatrical windows weren't that big of a thing back then.

[stardragon9]

People did care about spoilers. I remember being in college in 1999 and one student verbally chastised someone for ruining the ending for 'The Sixth Sense' before they could go see it (several people also wanted to punch this person as well).

[kylor]

[Worship.my.wreck]

People have always hated it. I remember people used to be dicks and put spoilers under random youtube video comments that had nothing to do with the movie that they were "spoiling". It's always happened.

[GaragePoet]

we didn't live in such a 360° media onslaught in the 90's, and we were generally just way cooler back then. good times.

[starsteam]

One of my favorite bits of Weird Al trivia is that he was able to write the song "The Saga Begins" before ever seeing The Phantom Menace based on leaked spoilers alone. It always seem like with those bigger movies like Star Wars many people actively seek out information - they just can't wait for the movie to come out, they have to know what happens.

[L.J.]

People have never liked spoilers are the best scene being shown in trailers. To the point now where it's best to only watch the teaser and stay out of threads that discuss the film. Trailers by far are the worst now days. Some give the whole movie away.

[Member-244966]

Originally Posted by starsteam

One of my favorite bits of Weird Al trivia is that he was able to write the song "The Saga Begins" before ever seeing The Phantom Menace based on leaked spoilers alone. It always seem like with those bigger movies like Star Wars many people actively seek out information - they just can't wait for the movie to come out, they have to know what happens.

With bigger films like that, there's also the temptation for others to spoil films for others, just for fun. I remember getting home from the midnight showing of The Force Awakens, and every comment I saw on Facebook was about Han Solo, on posts that had nothing to do with Star Wars. Had barely been an hour since the film finished, and already people were ruining it for others.

[Ernest Rister]

Rosebud is a sled.

[ps3bd_owner]

It was there, but people weren't really that defensive about it. Nowadays you have to use a spoiler alert even if it's a show or film from 50yrs ago, so no chance someone gets annoyed somehow.

It's like jokes. You can't make certain jokes anymore as it may offend someone, even though it's just a joke.

[Damon1281]

Originally Posted by ps3bd_owner

It's like jokes. You can't make certain jokes anymore as it may offend someone, even though it's just a joke.

Except that if it were just a joke, it wouldn't be funny.