AKAkorm: Quote from Roger Ebert:
> Many directors find test screenings invaluable; Billy Wilder, for example, killed the first reel of Sunset Boulevard after a screening. If the test screenings are used by the filmmakers themselves to get feedback on a rough cut, that’s valid. Too often, however, studio executives use preview screenings as a weapon to enforce their views on directors, and countless movies have had stupid happy endings tacked on after such screenings.
Glip-Glops: Test audiences also hated Star Wars. they said things like “C3P0 is dumb because his mouth doesn’t even move when he talks”.
Zkbvjxq: If the test audiences hated the film, how did it become so successful?
ZanyDelaney: The other TIL is that Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey had had an antagonistic relationship in the previous film Red Dawn, but put that aside when they screen tested together for Dirty Dancing. However they were soon fighting again. The producer and director had them rewatch their screen test with its “breathtaking” chemistry, and the problems were smoothed out.
The8bitplaya: I was 10. I thought it would be “Dirty.” Extrapolate that to the entire population and you will have a least one variable on why it was so popular.
zomboromcom: Nobody puts Baby in the bargain bin.
ZanyDelaney: > No one on the [production] team, however, liked the rough cut that was put together, and Vestron executives were convinced the film was going to be a flop. Thirty-nine percent of people who viewed the film did not realize abortion was the subplot. In May 1987, the film was screened for producer Aaron Russo. According to Vestron executive Mitchell Cannold, Russo’s reaction at the end was to say simply, “Burn the negative, and collect the insurance.”
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> Further disputes arose over whether a corporate sponsor could be found to promote the film. Marketers of the Clearasil acne product liked the film, seeing it as a vehicle to reach a teen target audience. However, when they learned the film contained an abortion scene, they asked for that part of the plot to be cut.
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> The film drew adult audiences instead of the expected teens, with viewers rating the film highly.
Skippy8898: I think a large part is the songs being released on radio and MTV. I’ve had the Time Of My Life, Hungry Eyes, and She’s Like The Wind were all huge hits. That turned people to go see the film.
StupidBuckles: I remember having this movie on VHS as a kid and rewatching it over and over and over again.
egregiousmonkey: The remake, though. Broke my heart.
imabirdlawyer: C’mere loverboy!
bikinimonday: As a kid, everywhere I went that movie was on. My house, my aunts house, my grandmas house, my friends house, and of course, the sound track playing in the car.
I fucking love that sound track and I’m okay with that.
And I….had…..
Siegeplaysgame: My parents are in the beach scene together and didn’t even know each other at the time! Cool movie. Let me be alive and all that
Two2na: Stupid sexy Julian
obtrae: I first heard about Dirty Dancing from the series “The Goldburgs” where the mother was obsessed with the movie. When I finally did come across the movie, I was really intrigued by it. It was charming and Patrick Swayze was really likeable. He was such a smooth and cool guy. The guy was a real life dancer before. So I googled Patrick Swayze to read about the life of this amazing actor, and guess what happened? I got sucked into a depression by all the mean crap that this guy had to endure toward the end of his life by his disease and wife. It was so hard for me to compare ’88 Swayze from Dirty Dancing to Parrick Swayze from the ’00s. Rip
Tac_b: TIL that Detective Lenny Briscoe and Lumiere are the same person.
TooShiftyForYou: The producer suggested just placing the film in the corner of the studio basement but Patrick Swayze intervened.
canadave_nyc: *Nobody* burns the negative of Dirty Dancing!
Landlubber77: Kids be like, “the negative?” “Video rental?” “Video?”
mindlessASSHOLE: These, arms, of, miiiiinnnnneeeee
slaty_balls: Man I wish they would’ve. I’ve had two exes obsessed with that movie and Patrick Swayze has been a celeb would-be hall pass on 90% of those polled.
ApatheticAnarchy: My parents were swing dance instructors for awhile, and I pretty much grew up on this movie from the time I was old enough to remember anything. I had no idea anything about anything ‘dirty’ or anything else, it was just some guy dancing with a chick that looked like my sister with good music.
Which is now stuck in my head now that I’ve thought about that movie again.
♫ *I…. had…. the time of my liiifeee…. and I neeever felt that way before…* ♪
Anandya: Never finished watching Dirty Dancing. Always watched it as part of a date. Let’s just say that Dirty Dancing is the equivalent of strong pornography for ladies.
They can’t resist the Swayze.
Thundercats_Hoooo: It’s an okay movie, but I don’t put it up there with a classic like Road House.