Hollywood is thinking about it, though, and putting movie trailers in theaters so you will be, too.

They are called "teaser trailers," designed to whet your appetite for a movie well down the road. Sometimes they're little more than place holders for the movie that's to come later. Sometimes the movie in question hasn't even started filming yet, but it's already got a date lined up for its release.

Here is a roundup of trailers you'll see if you hit the multiplexes this weekend, with release dates and an "anticipation factor" rating, on a 1-to-10 scale, from least to most:

* "Flightplan" (Sept. 23) -- Jodie Foster plays an airplane designer flying with her 6-year-old girl on her newest plane's maiden flight. In midair, the girl disappears -- and everyone (including Peter Sarsgaard and Sean Bean) tells her the kid was never on board. The trailer shows Foster in her best "Panic Room" mode: smart, maternal, scared and angry. Anticipation factor: 7.

* "Tim Burton's Corpse Bride" (Sept. 23) -- If you saw "The Nightmare Before Christmas," you'll recognize Burton's creepy atmosphere and lanky stop-motion animated characters. Even better, he's created a pencil-limbed version of Johnny Depp (who provides the voice) as the lead character, a commitment-phobic young man torn between two prospective fiancees -- one in the flesh, the other a ghost. Anticipation factor: 8.

* "The Greatest Game Ever Played" (Sept. 30) -- A heartwarming, inspired-by-true-events story of a young caddy ("Holes" star Shia LeBeouf) overcoming class differences to play golf and compete in the 1913 U.S. Open. Think "The Legend of Bagger Vance," and you're already there. Anticipation factor: 4.

* "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" (Oct. 7) -- Nick Park's clay-animated inventor and his dog get their own movie. For some of us, that's all we need to know. For the rest, the "Chicken Run" clip at the beginning (same studio, same animators) and the clever slapstick humor are clues to the merriment to come. Anticipation factor: 9.

* "The Legend of Zorro" (Oct. 28) -- Antonio Banderas, Catherine Zeta-Jones and director Martin Campbell reunite for the sequel to 1998's "The Mask of Zorro." Were any of you holding your breath for this? Probably not, but the trailer is crammed with lots of action, and hints of romance and humor. Anticipation factor: 4.

* "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" (Nov. 18) -- The events of the fourth Harry Potter movie are set up: a grand and dangerous wizards' tournament, in which Harry's life is put in danger. The clip ends with Professor Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) ominously intoning, "Soon you must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy." But the coolest thing comes at the beginning: clips of Harry, Hermione and Ron from each of the four films -- and the surprising revelation of how quickly these kids are growing up. Anticipation factor: 9.

* "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" (Dec. 9) -- For some, just knowing C.S. Lewis' classic book is being made into a movie is enough to get hearts racing. For everyone else, two stunning images in the trailer -- Aslan the lion roaring mightily, and Tilda Swinton looking menacing as the White Witch -- will do the trick. Anticipation factor: 9.

* "Domino" (Nov. 4) -- Tony Scott pours on the shaky camera action for this trailer, a semi-true story about a fashion model-turned-bounty hunter (Keira Knightley). The trailer plays up the gunplay and the weirdness quotient -- which, with Christopher Walken and Mickey Rourke in the cast, should be off the charts. One unanswered question: What the heck is this movie about? Anticipation factor: 3.

* "The Da Vinci Code" (opening May 19) -- The highlight is a cool computer-graphic presentation of what looks like a fast sweep over a cracked desert landscape, which pulls back to reveal that the cracks are in the paint of the "Mona Lisa." The ominous narration says things like, "It is a message that has been hidden for centuries -- right before our eyes." Beyond that, it's just the names of the stars (Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou are the leads) and the director, Ron Howard. If you need to know more, ask somebody who's read the book. Anticipation factor: 7.

-----

Got a question about the movies? Send it to movie critic Sean P. Means: The Salt Lake Tribune, 90 S. 400 West, Suite 700, Salt Lake City, UT 84101, or e-mail at movies@sltrib.com.