The New Online Platform Aiming To Save Hollywood Billions And Tackle Piracy

A revolutionary online test screening platform is aiming to not only change the face of audience feedback but also tackle piracy that costs the industry billions of dollars a year.

Studios currently hold test screenings, often months ahead of a film’s release, in movie theaters, to gauge reactions and, among other things, make any necessary changes or do reshoots. That process comes at a considerable cost, something iScreeningRoom.com hopes to change, drastically,

“For a feature film, a typical in-theater test screening in a single location, with a recruited audience, mid-week for a single showing runs about $25,000,” CTO Scott DeSapio told Forbes. “By comparison, an iScreeningRoom test, which runs nationally over several days, is $10,000. For a full-length feature film that includes all streaming, watermarking, audience, and survey costs. TV spots or trailers are $2,500. We'll probably be looking to raise the price for feature films next year, but still nowhere near $25,000 - it’s more like $12,500 -$15,000."

One thing iScreening.com can’t compensate for is shared experience and atmosphere that viewers would get in a movie theatre, something I asked DeSapio about. This is a great question that we actually get asked a lot. The answer quite simply is that the proof is in the pudding. In every case, bar none, iScreeningRoom's test results have been more accurate than in-theater test screening results - sometimes by as much as 30 points (out of 100).”

He added: “Of course, when a film doesn't score well in iScreeningRoom, we've had customers resist the empirical results and react with things like, 'Well... my film really needs to be seen in a theater,' or 'There's no way watching my movie on a computer or phone is going to yield accurate results.' We understand completely the thought behind that because it's a somewhat logical conclusion. However, all of the empirical evidence says otherwise - platform and device just don't matter. If the film is good, people will like it. If it isn't, they won't. iScreeningRoom has yet to get it wrong.”

“Accuracy is the name of the game. What good is a test if you can't rely on the results? None. For a national release, what decisions can possibly be made off of shoddy data, collected in a single location, with an audience that has most likely been paid to attend? Only bad decisions.”