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Forgive me if this is a dumb question but reading the article you linked I've always wondered…..
How in the hell do you get picked to screen a movie?? I've never gotten a chance to do so nor have I ever personally met anyone who has.
Do you strike lightning in a bottle and just have to be in the right place at the right time? There a list somewhere to put your name on? Gotta know someone involved with the movie?
Genuinely curious on this
In LA, at a few theaters throughout town, maybe once a month or so per theater, there will be people who work for the companies who handle test screenings, standing at the theater entrance or at the top/bottom of a theater escalator, etc, literally recruiting people to attend certain screenings. But they don't work for the theater and they aren't for screenings at that particular theater either. Most test screening are on studio lots, though some do rent out a multiplex theater if it's a bigger crowd.
Regardless, the recruits will have a clipboard with a little sign on it that says something like, "TEST SCREENING FOR SCI-FI ACTION PIC / WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2021." The clipboard/sign hardly ever says the actual title of the movie, or if it does have the title it'll be for a movie that's not some big secret. If it doesn't have the title, sometimes, if you ask, the recruit will tell you what it's for, but sometimes they won't. It just depends. Either way, they'll ask you as you walk by if you want to attend (or you can approach them), you then give them your name and email, then you get an email invitation like a day later with the screening time and address, and your name is on an admittance list for entry through the studio gate. Once you attend a screening, you can then opt to be put on an email list that goes out from that particular company every so often, and they get a lot of attendees that way as well.
The other way to attend is simply knowing people who work for the studios who are involved in the test screening process. Again, the studios hire screening companies to handle it all, but they're obviously working hand-in-hand with studio employees who set the screenings up and act as liaisons.
I've attended test screenings every which way, through recruiters and through friends at studios. And while it's cool to get to see something months in advance, I honestly started to get jealous of everyone seeing certain movies opening weekend, and didn't enjoy missing out on all the hype and marketing that goes along with that experience, for titles I'd already seen months ago, most of which featured incomplete effects or alternate scenes/endings/etc (that usually aren't as good as the final product).
The only two test screening experiences that were truly memorable for me were being in the first test screening for
Borat, eight months before it came out, in a huge, packed theater, and then being in the first test screening for
I Am Legend on the Warner Bros. lot. To this day, the
Borat screening is literally the hardest I've ever laughed in a theater, long before any trailers or commercials had been cut, so I had almost no idea what to expect, save for being a fan of his HBO show. But I literally had tears in my eyes multiple times, and the audience was just howling throughout. It was amazing. Then, for
I Am Legend, they showed us two different endings. After filling out the post-screening questionnaire, a friend and I were picked to be part of a 10-person focus group, and I swear we were one of the reasons they went with the ending they did. In one ending Will Smith lived, but we pleaded our case as to why it should be the ending where he dies. There were a ton of WB execs right behind us, hanging on every world, and all I know is they ultimately went with the ending where he died.
So those were super cool, unique experiences, but the others I've been to, I ultimately just ended up feeling left out on opening weekend, jealous of everyone who got to experience the marketing push and opening weekend in real time, so to speak.
Tying this back into The Matrix, though, I guarantee you no one attending that test screening knew they were there to see it. They almost assuredly knew they were seeing a big, Warner Bros. blockbuster, so they knew it'd likely be worth their time, but for a movie that big/secret, someone probably came out and announced it just before the lights went down.
