Inside YouTube's Weird World Of Fake Movie Trailers

Fake movie trailers created with AI are proliferating across YouTube, with some garnering more views than official studio releases -- and Hollywood studios are quietly profiting from the phenomenon rather than shutting it down. Instead of enforcing copyright on these unauthorized videos, Warner Bros. Discovery, Sony Pictures, and Paramount are claiming monetization rights, directing ad revenue from fake trailers for films like 'Superman' and 'Gladiator II' into studio coffers, according to a Deadline investigation published Friday.

YouTube channels like Screen Culture, which has amassed 1.4 billion views, merge official footage with AI-generated imagery to create convincing trailer mockups that frequently rank higher in search results than legitimate studio releases. 'Monetizing unauthorized, unwanted, and subpar uses of human-centered IP is a race to the bottom,' SAG-AFTRA told Deadline, condemning studios for profiting from content that exploits performers without permission.

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