How Movie Studios Cash In on Fake AI Movie ‘Trailers’ on YouTube
In recent years, YouTube has become a breeding ground for AI-generated fake movie trailers, flooding the platform with misleading yet captivating content. These videos, which often combine snippets of legitimate footage with AI-generated visuals, have amassed billions of views.
But instead of clamping down on these copyright-infringing videos, major Hollywood studios have opted for a different approach: monetizing them.
According to a Deadline report, the studios struck a deal with YouTube to redirect ad revenue from these misleading trailers, treating the situation more like a business opportunity than a violation of intellectual property.
One of the most infamous examples is a fake trailer for the upcoming Superman reboot, which even duped French national television. The video features AI-crafted scenes of David Corenswet’s Superman and Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor.
When director James Gunn caught wind of the fake trailer, he responded with a trio of vomiting emojis — perhaps unaware that Warner Bros. Discovery, the studio behind the film, was quietly profiting from the very trailer that upset him.
Following Deadline’s exposé, popular YouTube channel Screen Culture, a purveyor of AI-generated trailers, was removed from YouTube’s Partner Program. A representative from KH Studio, another popular creator, expressed frustration over being labeled misleading despite only aiming to create “what if” scenarios.
“I’ve been running KH Studio full-time for over three years now, putting everything into it,” they say per Engadget. “It’s tough to see it grouped under ‘misleading content’ in the demonetization decision, when my goal has always been to explore creative possibilities — not to misrepresent real releases.”
The saga raises a troubling question: Why would studios allow AI-generated slop to proliferate alongside authentic trailers, blurring the line for casual viewers? SAG-AFTRA, the actors’ union, condemned the practice as a “race to the bottom.”
The rise of AI-generated trailers is not new; fake movie previews have existed since YouTube’s early days. VJ4rawr2, a pioneer of the genre, created viral hits like Titanic 2: Jack’s Back and imaginative mashups featuring Leonardo DiCaprio in Squid Game. But AI has industrialized the practice, enabling channels like Screen Culture to churn out concept trailers on an assembly line.
According to Deadline, Screen Culture’s founder, Nikhil P. Chaudhari, turned his passion for video editing into a business, producing content that blurs the line between fan-made fun and professional marketing. With a team of editors and the help of tools like Midjourney and ElevenLabs, Chaudhari creates trailers that often rank higher in YouTube’s search results than official studio releases. While Chaudhari argues that the videos promote the movies, the studios’ willingness to collect revenue from misleading content raises ethical questions.
The relationship between AI-generated trailers and copyright enforcement remains murky. Warner Bros. Discovery, Sony, and Paramount have quietly claimed ad revenue from these videos instead of issuing copyright strikes. Yet, inconsistencies abound — some infringing videos are flagged, while others remain untouched. Even Amazon and Disney have been selective in enforcing copyright on these AI imitations.
For now, the fate of AI-generated trailers on YouTube remains uncertain. The technology isn’t going away, and neither are the creators eager to use it.
