Test screenings are part and parcel of the movie business and have been for a long time, but even the merest hint of bad buzz can do a lot of damage. The Marvels hasn’t suffered quite as badly as Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom on that front, but whispers from previews haven’t been universally enthusiastic, either.
We’re now just days away from the 33rd feature-length installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which has to contend with the maelstrom of being the franchise’s shortest-ever film, the follow-up to its most widely-detested entry in terms of Rotten Tomatoes audience approval ratings, and box office projections that are a million miles behind its billion-dollar predecessor.
Like almost all Marvel productions, Nia DaCosta’s debut in the world of superhero cinema was screened multiple times ahead of its big screen bow, and the filmmaker opined on its double-edged nature in an interview with Collider.
“That’s sort of every filmmaking process where, whether it’s getting notes from your executives – because even if you’re not doing test screenings in the way that Marvel does, I usually like to just get a group of people I trust and who have great taste together, and that’s really helpful for me.”
Noting one of the most bizarre pieces of feedback received, DaCosta maddeningly explained that somebody’s upper body apparel was apparently a major issue.
“I can’t think of anything specific because it literally is, you get every kind of note you could possibly think about. Literally, someone said, ‘I don’t like that tank top.’ What am I gonna do about that? Literally nothing.”
The Candyman megaphone-wielder would also go on to say that “the ones that you take are the ones that improve the movie that you’re trying to make,” and we’ll all get to be the judge of that very shortly when The Marvels finally soars into multiplexes.