You’ve Got to be a Genius to Make a Movie This Bad
The Plot Thickens
TCM Podcasts
4.8 • 4.8K Ratings
🗓️ 10 August 2021
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Bonfire of the Vanities tanks with both critics and the moviegoing public. Brian De Palma leads the autopsy, trying to understand how all these smart people made all the wrong decisions. The only upside is for Julie Salamon, whose book on the production is instantly hailed as a modern classic. But even that success comes at a price, as not everyone is thrilled to be immortalized by the book.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In September 1990, Warner Brothers held the first screening of the Bonfire of the Vanities. |
| 0:06.6 | It was kind of a test to see what audiences thought of the movie. |
| 0:12.7 | This was one day after a studio executive had said, this is the best movie I've been involved |
| 0:19.1 | with in the history of my administration. |
| 0:23.0 | Now it was time to see if the public agreed. |
| 0:26.8 | The movie was not totally finished, but studios always test pictures in front of audiences |
| 0:32.2 | before final editing. |
| 0:34.0 | That's the point, to use their reactions to make changes. |
| 0:37.9 | The test audiences are carefully selected. |
| 0:40.8 | And then, after the screenings, they're handed cards and asked to rate the movie. |
| 0:45.8 | Did they think it was excellent or very good? |
| 0:49.0 | What did they like? |
| 0:50.0 | What did they not like? |
| 0:54.0 | The whole process, as you can guess, isn't foolproof. |
| 0:58.4 | But it is a fairly reliable predictor of how a movie is going to do. |
| 1:02.7 | If 90% of a preview audience rates a movie excellent or very good, and says they'd recommend it, |
| 1:08.7 | the movie has a good chance of being a hit and a low rating, 50% or lower. |
| 1:14.5 | That spells disaster. |
| 1:17.8 | The first preview for the Bonfire of the Vanities was in San Diego. |
| 1:22.1 | Brian De Palma flew there from Burbank, a short flight on the Warner Brothers jet. |
| 1:27.3 | The instant Brian walked into the theater, he felt a little sick. |
| 1:32.5 | The audience was the opposite of diverse. |
... |
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