Save Money by Using Festival Screenings as Test Screenings by ALIENATED Movie’s Princeton Holt

I remember going to the famous Angelica Theater here in NYC to see the highly anticipated indie drama “Fruitvale Station” right after The Weinsteins picked it up and released it in limited theaters. Even during the beginning of a limited theatrical release the Weinsteins knew enough to test the film with an audience before going wider. There wasn’t a dry eye left in the house, but still that didn’t stop Harvey and Bob from sending out survey sheets to all of us in attendance. The film, directed by Ryan Coogler and starring Michael B Jordan who both went on to make the Oscar-nominated “Creed,” ended up winning multiple awards and earning well over $16 million in theaters on a $200,000 production and post budget. To say the Weinsteins’ test screening strategy worked would be an understatement.

“Then, we got our first film festival invitation and the lightbulb went off in my head. Forget just celebrating with a bunch of cast and crew members on some dingy red carpet. We were going to treat this like our test screening. Forget trying to win any awards, forget trying to receive any praise for completing yet another feature in our growing catalog. Brian and I were simply excited to see what this thing played like.”

Princeton Holt, ALIENATED Movie