Test Screenings
Also called preview screenings, this is a popular method of market research when a film is nearly finished or done. Mainly carried out in Los Angeles suburban areas, a selective demographic audience is invited to one of these screening and is usually paid for their participation. The cost of conducting such a screening usually costs anywhere between $7,000 to $15,000 USD for an audience between two and four hundred persons.
These screening have two major objectives, the first finding out the degree of playability of the film itself, meaning if it is viewable (does not bore but rather draws in the viewers) and two, to obtain useful insights which can later be used in assessing marketability.
Test screening audiences fill out a questionnaire after watching a film which is later pointed and assessed by the market research team.
This questionnaire is generally divided into the following 5 box scale: excellent, very good, good, fair, poor.
When executives say a film tested with a 73% for ‘the top two boxes’, 73% of the target audience chose excellent or very good on the five-point scale. Scores falling below the 55 to 65% range for the top two boxes are a cause for worry.
Another great method of promotion, after positive results at such a test screening, is word of mouth marketing. If people are generally content after seeing a film, and knowing they are one of the first people to have seen an unreleased film, it is very common they will tell express their opinion and thoughts regarding the movie. Because a large chunk of the population goes to see certain films in cinemas, relying on the opinion of their close friends, family members, or film critics in respected newspapers and magazines, the mechanics of the word of mouth marketing tool, have a enormous effect on people in the 21st century. Largely due to Internet as social media networks, people can in a flash of a second either draw positive or negative light on a film. This is able to spread like a virus among a certain demographic group, entire nation, or even on an international level.
In “Robert Altman’s 1992 dark comedy The Player – which was scripted by Michael Tolkin – contained this biting dialogue exchange that mocks a film test screening in suburban Los Angeles.
Idealistic Executive: You sold it out. I can’t believe it. How could you let him [another studio executive] sell you out? What about truth? What about the reality?
Filmmaker: What about the way the old ending tested in Canoga Park? Everybody hated it. We reshot it. Now everybody loves it. That’s the reality.
Reading this short dialogue exchange, we can quickly realize that reality revolves around consumers, in this case, viewer’s expectations and the majority taste. The truth is not necessarily in the film as someone may want, be it a director, actor or producer. The reality is what people like to watch, and if that shows during a test screening, then fine, however if that lacks during such a recruit, then the film must be re-shot/re-edited and from there on, that becomes the new truth on the film.