10 Great Movies That Had AWFUL Test Screenings
3. Last Action Hero
Time has certainly been kind to Arnold Schwarzenegger's Last Action Hero even if audiences of the time weren't quite ready for it - or just as likely, they were too busy gawking at Jurassic Park which released one week earlier.
Columbia Pictures knew they had a box office turkey on their hands, though, following a legendarily terrible test screening which took place less than six weeks before the movie was set to open.
Director John McTiernan called it "the roughest form" he's ever seen a movie test screen in, and according to Schwarzenegger, it was tough to make out most of the dialogue due to the sound mix being so unfinished.
As a result, the audience was terminally bored by the end, and the comment cards were brutal enough in their assessment of the film that producer Mark Canton ultimately shredded them before either McTiernan or Schwarzenegger could see them.
Details of the test screening soon enough leaked to the press, causing a tidal wave of anti-hype to precede the film's release.
Furthermore, McTiernan and Schwarzenegger both petitioned the studio to delay the movie so it could be more substantially reworked, but they refused.
And with that, Last Action Hero was sent out to die, though its esteem among film fans has grown considerably over the last three decades.