Red Band trailers are previews made for restricted audiences, i.e. those attending R-rated, NC-17 and unrated movies. You’re used to seeing Green Band trailers, which are “approved for general audiences” and currently shown in theaters. Studios have been complaining for years that Green Band trailers are not as effective for marketing certain movies to their target audience. If you are a teenage guy and you go to an R-rated movie and see a preview for American Pie that’s full of inappropriate humor and even nudity, you’re more likely to see the film. What if you like gory horror movies; wouldn’t a Red Band trailer full of explicit gore entice you to go see an upcoming movie?

Basically, Red Band trailers allow studios to show a lot more footage for certain movies than they have been previously, as exemplified with the Pathology movie trailer. Want to see a more detailed breakdown of the difference between Green Band trailers and Red Band trailers? Check out this great post.

Kudos to Regal for going the other direction and appealing to the studios. The studios are happy, I’m happy, and hopefully other theater chains will follow suit.