Blink and you might miss it. In the year’s Hollywood has seen an influx of new movie musicals, such as “The Color Purple”, “Mean Girls”, and “Wonka”, but by just watching these trailers and advertisements audiences could not even tell that for a majority of the film, the actors are breaking out into song and dance.

The shock plastered on the face of almost every theatergoer when Timothée Chalamet starts singing about chocolate speaks for itself. 

The marketing with “Mean Girls” could possibly be the biggest disappointment for fans of the original Broadway musical. From just watching the trailer, it is like the executives are keeping a big secret from the audience. The trailer features Olivia Rodrigo’s “Get Him Back”, but that song does not ever appear in the soundtrack, and the only thing within the entire trailer that insinuates that this may be a musical are brief shots of dancing and a music note hidden in an A.

“The Color Purple” was marketed as “a bold new take on a classic story”. However, the trailer and advertisements did very little to tell us what that “bold new take” was. It also fails to mention that this version is based on the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical as well as the book written by Alice Walker. The trailer includes the song “i’m here” from the soundtrack, but only two shots of on screen singing, very little shots of dancing, or the theatrical aspects. It simply seems like a new revamped version of the original film. 

This marketing is almost completely different from movie musicals from the past years such as “Tick Tick Boom”, which opens its trailer with “Bohemia” a song from the musical’s soundtrack, with performances from the movie as well. “In the Heights” features singing, and dancing, and shows the audience that the heart of the film is the music.

So why did Hollywood suddenly shy away from this normal marketing? The assumption is that after numerous commercial failures such as “Dear Evan Hansen” (which failed to meet its box office expectations), “In the Heights” and “West Side Story”, Hollywood executives decided to take a new route and conceal the most important part of a movie musical: the music.

“We didn’t want to run out and say it’s a musical because people tend to treat musicals differently. This movie is a broad comedy with music. Yes, it could be considered a musical but it appeals to a larger audience. You can see in [trailers for] “Wonka” and “The Color Purple,” they don’t say musical either. We have a musical note on the title, so there are hints to it without being overbearing,” Paramount president of marketing and distribution Marc Weinstock said.

In turn, concealing the musical aspects of a film gives the audience a false impression of what the movie will be like, but eliminates the possibility that one might not see the movie simply because they do not like musicals.

The latest movie musical that has fell victim to this type of advertisements is “Wicked”, which released its first look on February 12. The trailer, featured almost no theatrical aspects, and the only music was a riff preformed by Cynthia Erivos in the last five seconds. The problem with the trailer is that it does not seem like a musical movie, but rather just a movie. If one does not have a background in theater, or have no idea that this movie is based on the Broadway musical, then one simply does not know what they are getting into.

This new tactic of deceiving the audience, and tricking into buying tickets for movie in which they do not fully comprehend, does not make for an enjoyable movie-watching experience. While advertising the movie as “just a film”, producers may be increasing attendance among moviegoers who do not wish to indulge in a musical, but are losing out in appealing to those who do want to see a musical on the big screen. Producers could make for more enjoyable experience for those who are anticipating the theatrical aspects if they just labeled the movie as it should be: as a musical. The audience should not know exactly what it is getting into, however filmgoers should have a pretty good idea. Nobody wants to be deceived into thinking they are getting something they are not.