Paramount 1979 release preview

movieman1966 on April 4, 2013 at 12:11 pm

Like they did in 1978, Paramount Pictures released a preview trailer, that was attached to the 1979 edited re-release of “Saturday Night Fever”, focusing on their major releases for 1979. The trailer featured artwork and stills from those movies, but no actual footage from the films.

Incidentally, Walt Disney Pictures also released preview trailers from their release schedules from 1978 to 1981, but since they were only targeted for their summer releases and the previews was released during May in those years, they did feature footage from those films.

But I have a question about the Paramount preview trailer:

1) Since “Meatballs” is not featured in the trailer, but since a full page ad for the film was in an issue of American Film magazine in Summer 1979, does that instantly make it a major release?

movieman1966 on April 5, 2013 at 7:27 am

Chris, I had also first seen this at the Decatur Drive-In in Decatur, IL. in a double feature of “Saturday Night Fever” (Of course), and “American Hot Wax” in March 1979.

But watching this trailer these days, the one thing I find humorous about it is how Paramount boldly goes where no studio has gone before and proclaims that “STAR TREK: The Motion Picture” was “THE MOST EAGERLY AWAITED FILM OF ALL TIME!!!!!!!!”

…and then spells DeForest Kelley’s name wrong (at 2:36).

moviebuff82 on April 9, 2013 at 12:30 pm

I noticed it too. There’s also a youtube video of paramount’s 1985 lineup featuring some movies that would never come out or come soon…like the jetsons movie that universal picked up.