Here’s a good article on Variety about how marketing concerns have started to play a bigger role in European productions. The attitudes are changing, even though European film remains a more ‘artistic’ affair than Hollywood or Bollywood productions.
The idea to use test screenings for animated projects is interesting, but tricky. With European budgets, there is usually not enough money to make any changes, even if test screening results would call for them. Another issue is the unreliability of market research. People are known to answer one thing in a questionnaire, even though they actually believe another.
Don’t disappoint your audience
However, test screenings to determine a finished project’s positioning can be a smart approach. Movies have to be marketed accurately, so that the expectations of the crowds match the actual film. Disappointed early audiences can easily kill a film through negative word of mouth.
Paul Young, CEO of Irish Cartoon Saloon recounts his experience with ‘Brendan and the Secret of Kells’ on Cineuropa:
“I think what happened in Ireland was that Disney didn’t know what the film was and we pitched it a little bit more like a Disney film. […] It’s very different from a commercial film like Kung-Fu Panda in the sense that it’s more traditional [and] for [a] younger children and family audience. I think pitching it more like a Disney commercial film might [have given] the wrong impression in Ireland.”
As always, there is a middle ground between rejecting test screenings as commercial humbug and completely re-editing a film on every whim of a focus group. I think European animation producers would be wise to fine tune their projects’ marketing campaigns and make sure that expectations are set correctly. With the continuous changes in the film financing landscape, producers who don’t shy away from tests will be a step ahead of the game.
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