(2 of 2)
When story, title and cast total up to sub-average Want-to-See, the manufacturer can hurriedly sell his story to a non-client of A.R.I.—or he can scrap the whole thing. Thus far, A.R.I, has tested out 5,000 story ideas, of which 900 have become completed movies.
Previews & Critics. The finished—but still uncut—picture is given the works with an electrical contraption called the Hopkins Televoting System. Each member of A.R.I.'s handpicked, cross-section audience sits in a wired section of a preview theater. With his eyes on the screen, he clutches a gadget that resembles a flashlight. On the gadget's round face is an indicator that can easily be turned with the fingers (see cut). A turn to the right means "Like," far right "Like Very Much." A left twist registers as "Dull" or "Very Dull." The emotional reactions of A.R.I.'s watchers flow into a central machine which combines them all into one big wavy line. This chart, picturing the audience's peaks of ecstasy and valleys of apathy, shows the manufacturer where to trim out dull spots in his picture. It is known as a Preview Profile.
Moviemakers used to throw good advertising money after bad to promote an expensive flop. A.R.I, advises just the opposite. If the Preview Profile looks bad, the ad budget might as well be slashed. If the preview pans out better than expected, the picture is given special treatment and bigger ballyhoo.
Professional critics are mostly just shouting down a well. In Manhattan, where movie reviews sometimes get read, critics reach only about 12% of the public. A.R.I, thinks reviewers rarely influence Want-to-See. If they are angry enough or loud enough, they may contribute in a mild way to a movie's A.P.
CURRENT & CHOICE
Anna and the King of Siam. Lively period piece in which Irene Dunne and Rex Harrison prove that boy-gets-girl isn't the only kind of movie fun (TIME, June 24).
Cluny Brown. Ernst Lubitsch puts Jennifer Jones, Charles Boyer and an excellent cast through the hoops of British snobbery (TIME, May 20).
Henry V. Laurence Olivier's beautiful production of Shakespeare's play (TIME, April 8).
-*From the U.S. population of 140 million, experts subtract invalids, the proved insane and children under five. Resulting total: 91 million potential moviegoers. Hollywood does not feel excessively greedy about the several million sane, healthy adults still holding out.