Because gotta watch those trailers …
Missing Link – Looks amusing, but not compelling. Also totally watchable on a home screen, if it turns out to be something that gets a lot of acclaim.
The Secret Life of Pets 2 – The first one had trailers that looked amusing. This one doesn't even have that.
How To Tame Your Dragon: The Hidden World – Loved the first one, never got around to seeing the second one, is that's all there's been, probably should schedule a time after this one to watch the whole thing back to back.
Lego Movie 2 – I heard the first one was pretty good. I should probably rent that, and this one after it goes to rental.
Overcomer – If I want to watch an inspirational Hallmark Channel flick, I'll watch it for free on the Hallmark Channel. But I don't.
Huh. That was a remarkably short list of trailers. And, really, nothing that made me go ooh and aah.
Whomever decides what trailers pair to what movie apparently discounted the adult appeal of Into The Spiderverse. My theater was 3/4 full when I saw it over Christmas week and there were only a few children in the crowd.
It would have been a good candidate for a Captain Marvel or Infinity War trailer.
+Nick McIntosh The attached article is several years old, but i"d take it as a starting point.
1. The studio itself includes a core set of trailers before a film. Sony doesn't have a lot of incentive to push a Disney/Marvel film, even if Marvel is a co-producer of SMITSV.
2. The theater can add on other movie trailers, usually based on rating and assumptions about the audience.
In this last case, it would seem that the theater (or theater chain) assumed that most SMITSV viewers would be (a) kids and (b) parents of kids who would find a Hallmarkish family values movie of interest. (As with your experience, those did not seem to be the demographics of the audience at our showing.)
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2010/04/how-do-movie-theaters-decide-which-trailers-to-show.html