Kevin Goetz - Audience-ology: How Moviegoers Shape the Films We Love

Audienceology

How Moviegoers Shape the Films We Love

Kevin Goetz

With Darlene Hayman

A Hollywood Memoir

It takes about two years for my brother, Bobby, and me to make a movie. Then we show it to the world and find out whether we just wasted two years of our lives. Kevin is always at that nerve-wracking first screening, like a movie whisperer who knows all the right questions to ask the audience. Kevins job in a nutshell is to make movies better. And he does.

Peter Farrelly, Academy Awardwinning writer/director

So much of what we do as filmmakers revolves around making assump-tions about what will give the viewer an unforgettable experience. Kevin serves as the last validator of those assumptions. He and his remarkable company, Screen Engine/ASI, find the line between what was intended and what actually worked.

Nate Parker, actor, director, writer, and producer

Whether you sit behind the camera or in front of it, in film school or in an office on a studio lot, or just facing a screen as a movie lover, Audience-ology sheds light on the value of the test screening process. The explanations are illustrated with fascinating stories that are the lore of Hollywood. I only wish this book had existed when I first started out in the business.

Amy Pascal, producer and former Sony studio chairman

The media love to gossip about who has final cut on a movie. In reality, if you want a commercial hit, the audience has final cut. Getting an unbiased understanding of what the audience really thinks isnt simple. Kevin is a master in aiding in this effort, as his book so entertainingly reveals.

Tom Rothman, chairman, Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group

I remember our first preview of Bohemian Rhapsody, which took me nearly ten years to make. To say I was a ball of nerves is an understatement. When the lights came on, all I remember is seeing Kevins big smile. He leaned over and said, Youve got a massive hit on your hands, and all my nerves disappeared. Kevin is truly the best in the business.

Graham King, Academy Awardwinning producer

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Copyright 2021 by Kevin Goetz

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First Tiller Press hardcover edition November 2021

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Jacket design by Patrick Sullivan

Author photo by David Blank Photo

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021946374

ISBN 978-1-9821-8667-8

ISBN 978-1-9821-8678-4 (ebook)

To Joe and Catherine, and the millions of moviegoers who continue to share their unfettered truth.

L ong before a Minion stepped into my life, I met a young focus group moderator named Kevin Goetz. I was a production executive at 20th Century Fox, and the company where he worked conducted all the research on our pictures. He and I were about the same age, career-driven, cinephiles, and in retrospect, we both had entrepreneurial spirits. Kevin tested hundreds of movies each year, not just those released by Fox but movies from all the major studios. He always brought a well-informed perspective when we chatted about our films. It would be the beginning of our thirty-year friendship.

By 1996, I was running Foxs animation division, and soon thereafter, my colleagues and I began kicking around the idea for a film set against a prehistoric backdrop. After seeing some clips of spectacular CG animation from Blue Sky Studios, I established a relationship with its groundbreaking creative team to produce the film for Fox. Ice Age was born.

The audience testing that Kevin led on Ice Age resulted in two realizations that would change the course of my career. As we began to contemplate the release of Ice Age, we were still recovering from a massive financial loss of our previous animated film, Titan A.E. Feeling anxious, we took the film to other studios and looked for a partner to reduce our risk. While most of the town turned us down, we had one viable potential partner ready to start discussing a deal when we had that first preview. While the audience feedback was mixed, it was sending us a clear signal that this was not the right moment to be ruled by our anxiety.

The second realization was tied to the audience resistance that resulted in the mixed reaction. Its important to point out that the entire existence of Fox Animation and Blue Sky Studios rested on the shoulders of this movie pleasing its audience.

My team and I were very excited about a bold choice that we made to create a memorable and emotional end-of-second-act low moment. We killed off Diego, the saber-toothed tiger, one of our three main characters. When we took Ice Age out for its first test drive, we were surprised that the audience completely rejected this choice. To put it mildly, Diegos death stopped moviegoers in their tracks.

Kevin was at that early preview, and after the film was over, he assembled a focus group of parents and kids selected from the larger audience to stay behind and discuss what they had just seen. He quickly got feedback that the overwhelming majority of the focus group was not prepared to accept the death of a beloved character.

When Kevin dismissed the group, we gathered for his debrief. I will never forget how succinctly and sensitively he presented his findings, using the focus groups comments to provide essential insights about how our movie had played. He then presented us with what felt like an impossible challenge: to cut our precious death scene but make absolutely certain that we found another way to bring emotion to the conclusion of Diegos storyline.

Without that screening and the guidance Kevin provided, Fox would have sacrificed billions of dollars of revenue to a partner, and we would not have made a film so well liked that it spawned four sequels. Kevin earned a tremendous amount of credibility that day, effectively becoming a part of our Fox team.

Sometimes the lowest points during the movie research process inspire ideas that become highlights of the film. And that is exactly what happened with Ice Age. Like others who recount their stories in the pages ahead, I have a deep respect for the testing process and consider it an important step in filmmaking. What we learn from this type of research can validate what we already suspect or can propel us into entirely new directions. Either way, an early test screening allows us to make informed choices. Sometimes its as simple as changing a music cue, tightening a scene, or substituting alternate jokes for ones that dont land. Other times, as some of the chapters in