How Audiences Reshape the Movies You Love

On this week’s episode, Sonny talks to Kevin Goetz of Screen Engine/ASI and the author of Audienceology: How Moviegoers Shape the Films We Love. Kevin is one of the masters of the art of audience testing, that stressful period of time in a film’s life when it leaves the loving arms of its director and enters the world for approval by the folks who will be paying to see it. Sonny and Kevin discussed how audiences are chosen, what the screening process is like, how COVID has changed how all this works, and a few examples of how movies have been helped by the screening process over the years. Make sure to read Kevin’s book if you want a fuller understanding of one of the most important, and least visible, steps of a film’s distribution.