Screening Reactions from a Theater Employee

Damn, dude. Did you fund this movie? I do not know why you are so aggressively complaining about everyone's low opinion of the movie, or telling people anything about it. Sure, in a perfect world we would all see every film and make up our own minds, but some people do like spoilers, some people like reading reviews, and some people decide before they see things. Also your lack of believing anything anyone else says seems really weird and distrusting, have you been diagnosed as paranoid or is this just your persona? I saw a Thursday screening like many others, and movie companies do free screenings before release often, sometimes MONTHS in advance of a movie being released. I would bet money more than a few screening audiences watched an R rated version of this and it probably sucked so bad they thought they might make a couple more million by opening up the audience a bit. Oddly enough, many more people would have come out to see an R rated film even if people said it sucked, than a PG-13, especially after the runaway success of Don't Breathe. But the company took what they thought was the safe route, and they shot themselves in the foot. There will be no sequel for this one!

Braingirl78, almost every major picture does advance screenings. I was offered advance screening tickets to this like three times. If you live in a middle to large city you're almost sure to have advance screenings. They are usually Mondays-Thursdays, though there was the rare Friday advance of Split tonight. Google advance screenings. Set up an account and they will email you. Sometimes it's a contest and sometimes you just download tickets. You're never guaranteed to get in so you have to show up a bit early. I've always gotten in, though sometimes just barely. I almost always see at least 2-3 a month. I saw Hidden Figures in November and I saw The Space Between is, due out in February, last October.

The theater I work at is in a large midwestern city and holds around 2-3 screenings of upcoming movies a week. They almost always are films that will be released in the upcoming weekend. Many of the people who come to the screenings wait for hours ahead of time to get the best seats and are regular attendees of the free shows in particular. The studios themselves typically invite customers via email the day of the showing and it's a first-come first-served basis. Other companies like Gofobo are partnered with studios, and anyone can be on their contact list. Radio and TV stations also do promotions for advertising revenue.

The best seats in the auditorium (it's reserved seating) are pulled for press and studio affiliates, so it's a hybrid press advance screening and public screening to get the word out. The Bye Bye Man withheld pretty much all press screenings until the week before the movie because, I'm guessing, the studio had no confidence in its success. As the theater we're just like a temporary placeholder for the studios/organizations to promote themselves. Many times people are more easily impressed by free entertainment in a theater setting, but that's not always the case. I'm sure the theater/movie climate is different here than in NYC, since the studios have a deeper interest in that area and audience.

This screening was very low in attendance compared to all of our other recent screenings, and was in a smaller auditorium to boot. Now, not everyone gave their opinion, but all that I heard were negative. We aren't even carrying the movie in our regular roster now, because it wouldn't perform great with our demographic. Horror movies usually flop in attendance at our theater, so that is a factor.