Imagine stumbling across a sleek YouTube trailer for The Fantastic Four, brimming with explosive action and star power. It looks official—until you realize it’s not. Over a billion viewers fell for such deceptions this year alone.
YouTube shut down two major channels on December 18 for producing AI-generated fake movie trailers that consistently topped search results over authentic studio releases. Screen Culture, based in India, and KH Studio, from Georgia, have amassed more than 2 million subscribers and over 1 billion views by mimicking promotions from Disney, Marvel, HBO, and other notable brands. The platform cited violations of its spam and misleading metadata rules.
Rise of Deceptive Channels
These operations thrived openly. A team of about a dozen editors at Screen Culture, for instance, produced 23 versions of a phony Fantastic Four: First Steps trailer by March 2025. Searches for the real film often surfaced their creations first, outpacing multimillion-dollar studio campaigns. Viewers shared them widely, mistaking AI blends of copyrighted clips and generated visuals for genuine previews. Families discussed nonexistent movies, and excitement built around fabrications.
Financial Windfall from Fakery
The payoff was substantial. With 1 billion views, the channels likely earned between $2 million and $5 million annually from YouTube ads, fueled by copyright infringement and viewer confusion. Yet they were not alone in profiting. Warner Bros. Discovery and Sony reportedly quietly arranged for YouTube to funnel ad revenue from these fakes directly into their accounts. Both studios declined to comment when approached. No lawsuits or public demands followed—just redirected earnings from content that mimicked their brands.
Disney Draws a Hard Line
Disney took a firmer stance. In late December, it issued a cease-and-desist letter to Google, accusing the company of exploiting its copyrights on a massive scale via AI training models across YouTube and other services. The demand: implement technological fixes to halt future violations. That same week, Disney inked a $1 billion deal with OpenAI, licensing over 200 characters for its Sora tool. The contrast highlights a clear boundary—controlled partnerships are welcome, while unauthorized use is not.
Platform Response Lags
YouTube’s reaction came slowly. It paused ads on the channels in March 2025 after an initial exposé, then reinstated them once disclaimers like “fan trailer” or “concept” appeared. Those labels later disappeared, and full termination followed only after renewed scrutiny—eight months after the first flags. The channels targeted more than just Marvel, creating fake trailers for HBO’s Harry Potter series, Netflix’s Wednesday, and others. YouTube’s algorithm propelled them upward, prioritizing engagement over authenticity and turning searches into traps of misinformation.
Ongoing Challenges Ahead
Similar operations persist on YouTube, albeit on a smaller scale, with no announced policies for AI labeling or broader crackdowns. Disney’s letter hints at escalating legal fights over platform liability for user-generated AI content. As tools become cheaper and more sophisticated, studios face pressure to match replication speeds, platforms to enforce better detection, and audiences to distinguish between real and synthetic content. The channel takedowns mark a skirmish in a larger contest over copyrights, technology, and trust in digital entertainment.
Sources:
Inside YouTube’s Weird World Of Fake Movie Trailers — And How Studios Are Secretly Cashing In On The AI-Fueled Videos, Deadline
YouTube Turns Off Ad Revenue For Fake Movie Trailer Channels, Deadline
YouTube Takes Down Fake AI Trailer Channels Following Disney’s Warning, PCMag
Disney Fires Off Cease-And-Desist Letter To Google Claiming Its AI Services Infringe On Copyright On A ‘Massive Scale’, Deadline
After OpenAI deal, Disney demands Google cease-and-desist, Mashable
WB, Sony allegedly wanted YouTube to pay them money from fake movie trailers, Neowin