Major Hollywood studios have invented a new method of fighting fake trailers on YouTube by simply turning them into another source of revenue.
According to the investigation DeadlineThe film industry giants no longer send requests for removal, but instead demand that they redirect the advertising revenue generated by fake trailers. In one of the correspondences reviewed by journalists, Warner Bros. makes similar claims to Screen Culture and takes money from the monetization of fake trailers «Dragon’s Den» and «Superman», while Sony sent them for «Spider-Man» and «Craven the Hunter» videos, and Paramount for «Gladiator II»
All three studios declined to comment, but the actors’ union SAG-AFTRA has already criticized their actions. Why, instead of protecting copyright, are the giants of the film industry monetizing fakes? The answer is unconfirmed, but quite obvious: money and free advertising
Fake trailers have been flooding YouTube since the video platform’s inception in 2005. One of the first was a viral video featuring footage from «Titanic», where Leonardo DiCaprio’s Jack emerges on a block of ice in the ocean and returns to life in modern-day New York City — all accompanied by a dance remix of Celine Dion’s My Heart Will. An updated version in 2018, titled «Titanic 2: Jack’s Back» garnered 53 million views before being blocked at the request of 20th Century Fox.
The aforementioned videos were created by VJ4rawr2, who does not disclose his real name, but has already received the title of «father of conceptual trailers». And while he created them mostly for laughs, in recent years, artificial intelligence has dramatically changed the game. Most modern videos ask a simple, compelling question: What would a live-action movie «Frozen» look like with Anya Taylor-Joy as Elsa? Or what would Leonardo DiCaprio do if he played in «The Squid Game»? And can Henry Cavill make a good James Bond? The latter, by the way, has gone so viral that he is now were written by specialized movie websites, such as Variety or The Hollywood Reporter.
According to Deadline, some of the largest channels earn millions of dollars from fake trailers. The owner of the aforementioned Screen Culture, 27-year-old Nikhil Chaudhary, focuses mostly on creating trailers for films that are in actual development: using footage from official video, traditional editing techniques, and increasingly AI (Midjourney, ElevenLabs, Leonardo) — to add more context to the details that most hook viewers.
Currently, Choudhary has a team of 12 editors who produce up to 12 new videos every week. Interestingly, in February 2025, Screen Culture’s videos had higher YouTube rankings than original trailer «Fantastic Four» by Marvel
Screen Culture has 1.4 billion views and 1.4 million subscribers, while only about 10% of the total 2700 videos were claimed to be monetized.
Spelling error report
The following text will be sent to our editors: