Last week, Warner Bros. debuted the full trailer for THE HANGOVER, PART II online and set it to run before prints of SOURCE CODE in theaters. Just yesterday, Warner Bros. sent an urgent notice to all theater owners notifying them that all copies of the trailer “need to be destroyed” and all current placements, including and especially SOURCE CODE, need to be removed immediately. No replacement trailer nor a reason was given (though the line “the MPAA [has] instructed” is telling). So what gives?
UPDATE – Warner Bros. released a statement saying, “In our haste to meet the placement schedule for this trailer, we failed to properly vet the final version with the MPAA. We acted immediately to correct the mistake and removed the trailer from screens.”
This is the trailer in question:
The trailer was obviously pre-approved by the MPAA (that green little title card in the beginning tells us so) so why now decide to not just pull the trailer but destroy it? Was it the “whore in Las Vegas” line? The use of the words “bitches” or “gay boys?” The monkey “nibbling on the weenus?” Frankly it could be any one of those things. The MPAA isn’t talking but likely there was a complaint (or a few complaints) from families who went to see SOURCE CODE and weren’t happy with the HANGOVER trailer.
So for now, you’ll have to just watch it online or wait until SCREAM 4, which is when a “new” HANGOVER trailer will debut…