Top 10 Movie Trailers That Everyone HATED

People were immediately ready to declare “The Emoji Movie” a soulless Sony commercial. Any hope it might be a pleasant surprise like “The Lego Movie” went out the window with the first teaser. A meh emoji, voiced by Steven Wright, announces that this will be their first movie. Their only movie would’ve been more accurate. To say that the reception was “meh” would be too generous. The response was better summed up with an appearance from a poop emoji, voiced by Sir Patrick Stewart. In 24 hours, the teaser accumulated roughly 22,000 dislikes, more than five times the amount of likes. The subsequent trailer didn’t bode well either, making it clear exactly what the final product would be: a product.

Some write off the original “Three Stooges” film shorts as lowbrow slapstick, which is unfair. At their peak, the “Three Stooges” shorts showcased some of the most inventive, character-driven, and funniest moments in all of comedy. The trailer for the 2012 feature film didn’t send this impression, targeting the lowest common denominator. While traces of the classic “Stooges” humor are present, they’re undercut with obnoxious narration, over-the-top music, and the presence of the Jersey Shore gang. Some felt the film ultimately wasn’t as bad as the advertising suggested. That said, the trailer highlighted the movie’s worst moments, not appealing to long-time “Stooges” fans and failing to reach a new generation. Larry, Curly, and Moe themselves couldn’t have made a more inept trailer.

Between its teaser and first official trailer, “Snow White” became arguably the most hated live-action Disney remake before even being released. “Live-action” might actually be a stretch. From the environments, to the woodland critters, to those ungodly abominations claiming to be the seven dwarfs, almost everything is draped in CGI so garish that it makes “Once Upon a Time” look like “The Lord of the Rings.” Among the few exceptions is star Rachel Zegler[a]. We’re not going to act like the controversy surrounding Zegler’s casting and her comments about the original classic haven’t contributed to the excessive downvotes. Even taking external factors out of the equation, though, the trailers still look about as appetizing as a poison apple. But hey, appearances can be deceiving, right?

For decades, anime and manga[b] enthusiasts wondered what a live-action “Dragon Ball” adaptation would look like. While everyone pictured something different, it’s safe to say nobody envisioned the atrocities that awaited in “Dragonball Evolution.” The masses were given their first taste of this cinematic dumpster fire with the trailer, which looked more like something a fan threw together. Actually, we take that back because a fan-made trailer would’ve tried harder to resemble the source material. Sure, Goku’s orange outfit appears, but people took issue with the actor playing Goku. Although Goku is technically a Saiyan, it was disheartening for many to see an icon of Japanese animation being portrayed by the Caucasian, Canadian-born Justin Chatwin[c]. Couple that with lazy effects, and the trailer spelled instant fatality.

This French film was well-received at Sundance, seemingly vindicating Netflix’s decision to pick up the distribution rights. Before landing on the streaming platform, the film’s poster sparked protests with many believing that it depicted young girls in an overtly mature light. Netflix apologized for the poster, saying it “was not an accurate representation of the film.” The trailer better reflected what the movie was about: a young Muslim dancer torn between tradition and the right to expression. By this point, though, naysayers had already made up their minds, bombarding the trailer’s dislike button. Some went a step further, calling for others to boycott Netflix. Although Netflix reportedly saw a massive surge of canceled subscriptions, “Cuties” was still among the streamer’s most-watched international films of 2020.

“Morbius” confirmed what we always knew: Sony’s Spider-Man Universe was a bad idea. That didn’t stop Sony from trying to convince us otherwise with “Madame Web.” So, what was the trailer’s best foot forward? “He was in the Amazon with my mom when she was researching spiders right before she died.” Seriously, Sony? Look, we get that you wanted to allude to Spider-Man, but… no, you know what? This clumsy line of dialogue epitomizes one of the main problems with this cinematic universe: Teasing Spider-Man in movies with no Spider-Man. Baby Peter Parker doesn’t count! While the trailer alienated most viewers, it got a few excited for some good, old-fashioned hate-watching. The film might’ve delivered on that front, but it failed to include the line that got those hate-watchers into the theater. Sony doesn’t understand any demographics.

From “Warcraft,” to “Borderlands,” to “A Minecraft Movie,” Hollywood has struggled to crack the code for advertising films based on video games. The backlash against the first “Sonic” movie trailer escalated especially quickly. Although the “Gangsta’s Paradise” needle drop and Jim Carrey’s Dr. Robotnik raised eyebrows, Sonic himself was the main point of contention. We should say Ugly Sonic, as the real Sonic doesn’t have such expressionless eyes, a lanky body, or human teeth. People found the design so grotesque that Paramount delayed the movie’s release, allowing the filmmakers time to give Sonic a makeover. The faithful redesign got the film on the right track, paving the way for a successful franchise. In retrospect, though, we’re curious what Ugly Shadow would’ve looked like.

Has the internet reached new levels of toxicity or have movie trailers simply gotten this bad? It was a question many asked when the trailer for the “Ghostbusters” reboot landed - and the answer was both. There’s no denying that sexism played a major part in making this YouTube’s most disliked trailer at the time. We can’t say that was the only factor, however. Kristen Wiig[d], Melissa McCarthy, Leslie Jones, and Kate McKinnon are among the funniest people in the business. You’d never guess this solely judging from the virtually laughless trailer. An unfunny trailer is one thing, but when your movie carries the “Ghostbusters” name, longtime fans are going to be especially critical. As far as some were concerned, the franchise died with this trailer.

Ugly Sonic made social media collectively recoil, but imagine an entire cast composed of Ugly Sonics. That’s what it felt like when the trailer for Tom Hooper’s adaptation of the stage musical “Cats” was unveiled. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical was tailor-made for an abstract medium like theatre. Translating the material to film, Hooper attempted to make humanoid cat people more realistic using CGI. The technology wasn’t ready, however. No seriously, the effects in the trailer weren’t finished yet, according to Hooper. The director implied that the film would look better, but even upon release, the CGI still wasn’t entirely done. The trailer perfectly encapsulated the movie we got, which is honestly the nicest thing we can say about it.

In June 2020, Indian actor Sushant Singh Rajput tragically died, seemingly from self-inflected methods. It was argued that the Indian film industry tends to spotlight talent from established families, putting actors like Rajput at a disadvantage. Whether or not this tied into Rajput’s mental health struggles, his death launched a campaign against nepotism. This led to backlash toward several Indian movies, including “Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl” starring Janhvi Kapoor. No movie received more hate than “Sadak 2,” in which director Mahesh Bhatt cast his daughter Alia as a lead. Becoming the poster child of nepotism, “Sadak 2” is currently the most disliked trailer on YouTube. The trailer remains one of the most disliked videos overall and the film itself wasn’t warmly received either.


Which trailer made you lose faith in cinema? Let us know in the comments.

[b]MONG-uh https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/manga
GOH-koo https://youtu.be/kIqpODBuG94?si=qYAgWa5XluP0S9Ve&t=189
SAY-in https://youtu.be/E0vWx9VjGe0?si=MDId6X-CgGts9KAU&t=39
[c]CHAT-win https://youtu.be/_XzUEAjwN8A
[d]Wiig = wig (rhymes with "big") https://youtu.be/d7ZsGkmwVL0?si=5Ojj-LnNdM4AFuJ2&t=1
[e]SAW-duck / sodduck two https://youtu.be/PJAjWL1U4Mk?si=ZqZxUYb4-6NZEKqr&t=5
soo-SHAWNT sing RAWZSH-put (i would slow this to 0.5x speed to hear it more clearly) https://youtu.be/ZadX2J_gyvU?si=iALk49Ufmha0T0GW&t=429
GEUN-jin/GOON-jin suck-SAY-nuh (sort of - pls listen! probably at 0.5x speed is best) https://youtu.be/-Aort93I5Gs?si=iam2O2Pvnz3J3AZc&t=60
CAR-ghill https://youtu.be/-Aort93I5Gs?si=kyydtfOHihUiWPrq&t=64
JON-vee kah-POOOOR https://youtu.be/e-sycEw4gyc?si=mM_hdnfWqxZ2tsoQ&t=167
muh-HAYSH https://forvo.com/search/mahesh%20bhatt/
AWLLY-uh bawt (again, it's sort of "bawt" but kind of sounds like "pot" - also, the "h" is not really silent - pls take a listen!) https://youtu.be/RbzErjfuDvw?si=CnJhSCpGYnwzw7Ha