10 Great Movies That Had AWFUL Test Screenings
5. John Wick
Four movies later, it's tough to consider that early responses to the original John Wick weren't good at all, even accepting that Keanu Reeves' career was in quite the slump at the time.
But as recently revealed by franchise director Chad Stahelski, a friends and family screening of the film received a lukewarm response, and given that friends and family screenings are the most generous audience a movie is ever going to get, that's typically a clear sign that a movie's goose is cooked.
A concerned Stahelski ultimately had a "come to God moment," however, where he vowed to stay the course and not make excessive changes to the movie - "We're not changing this. We're gonna own it. We're gonna do our headshots. We're gonna do our wacky choreography. We're gonna do what we wanted and what we saw. We're not gonna get nervous."
And it was clearly the right call - on opening night, Stahelski, Reeves, and co-director David Leitch sneaked into a midnight screening of John Wick and saw the crowd going wild for it, ensuring any remaining fears melted away.