#9 - Audience Testing with Stephen Hornyak - Pt 1

What It Covers

Steven Hornyak, who moderated focus groups on over 400 films including Deadpool and Spider-Verse, explains how Hollywood uses audience testing with 300-person screenings to shape films, marketing strategies, and prevent costly mistakes before release.

Key Questions Answered

• •Testing methodology: Studios recruit 300 demographically representative viewers, then select 20 for focus groups to identify story problems before expensive reshoots. This process shaped Get Out's ending when audiences rejected the original prison conclusion, prompting Jordan Peele to rewrite it.
• •High concept premises: Successful pitches distill to compelling questions audiences debate immediately, like Indecent Proposal's core dilemma about accepting money for infidelity. This water cooler test drives both greenlight decisions and marketing effectiveness across all audience touchpoints before production begins.
• •Script testing alternative: Screen Engine ASI now conducts dial tests with 48 people watching live actor readings of screenplays, tracking real-time engagement via electronic dials. One test saved filmmakers from shooting an unsatisfying ending about holding a baby, replacing it with a restaurant scene audiences preferred.
• •Green Book precedent: The film scored 100 out of 100, a perfect score achieved only twice in 30 years of testing. This rare result confirmed broad audience appeal and guided marketing spend toward upscale NPR listeners who matched the demographic profile of enthusiastic test viewers.