Audience test scores are often a necessary and incredibly helpful part of the filmmaking process. It’s during this step that directors, producers, and others involved in the production’s post-filming process can better understand how things piece together. And, in the case of titles likeChristopher Nolan’sThe Dark Knight, spectacular first-look reviews can act as another promotional building block. Of course, test screenings can also have the opposite effect and give a feature a bad rap months before its theatrical arrival. According to producerRoy Lee, this was precisely the case for the 2008home invasion horror flickThe Strangers.
DuringCollider’s Producers on Producingpanel at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, our editor-in-chiefSteve Weintraubchatted with Lee and two of his peers about all things moviemaking. After a question about the editing process, Lee revealed how muchThe Strangerschanged between those initial test screenings and its premiere date, noting that an editor essentially saved the movie from financial ruin.
“There’s one movie calledThe Strangerswhere the original version of the movie, when we tested it, tested the lowest test score in Universal history. It was so bad that the studio just wanted to dump the movie. We brought in an editor who just rearranged everything and made a totally different movie that we didn’t even test. Then, when it was released, it turned out to be a hit movie.”
The Legacy Of ‘The Strangers’
While Universal may have hated it and thought about dumpingThe Strangersfrom its lineup, now, more than a decade later, we’d wager a guess that they’re grateful for keeping it around. From the original project helmed byBryan Bertino, a franchise has been born with a follow-up feature titledThe Strangers: Prey at Nightreleased ten years later in 2018. Most recently, the first of what will become a trilogy centered around the franchise celebrated the arrival of its first installment,The Strangers: Chapter 1. Led byRiverdalealumMadelaine PetschandTeen Wolf’sFroy Gutierrez, the newest addition to the film seriesproved to be a success at the box office.
The next movie, aptly titledThe Strangers: Chapter 2, is just around the corner, eyeing a fall release withThe Strangers: Chapter 3expected to break into cinemas next year. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates about the goings-on of SDCC and watch Universal’s lowest testing movie now asThe Strangersis streaming on Max.
The Strangers
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