As some of you on the newsgroup have been very helpful with "The Profit" I thought you might be interested in our initial audience survey results for the film.

First of all, the survey itself is borrowed from my experience at Universal Studios. It asks the guests for comments on the film, obtains demographic information, and then asks for an audience rating on the following scale:

How would you rate the film?

6 Excellent
5 Very Good
4 Good
3 Fair
2 Below Average
1 Poor It then asks (the most important question): Would you recommend the film to someone else? (Back in my Universal days, this was the only question that really mattered to management because it spoke to the marketability of the film.)

We elected not to survey on Friday (opening night), because we did not feel that this audience would be representative, but would rather be skewed toward people who had anxiously awaited the opening, and might be biased in it's favor.

Our first survey was done on Saturday. The audience was 60% female, 40% male (possibly because the Tampa Bay Bucs were on TV last night, so the men watched football.) Initial results are as follows:

Average rating 4.67 on the above scale, which rates the film as being in the very good to good range.

On the question, "Would you recommend the film to someone else?" the results are as follows:

Yes 87% No 10% Not responsive 3% Now, it so happens, that this "recommend" factor is close to that of "ET: The Extraterrestrial," which was the highest grossing film we had at Universal during my tenure. Obviously, we don't have the marketing budget of "E.T." and the results are not yet statistically valid, but this is a very encouraging start.

Thanks to all those who have helped us. For those, who for whatever misguided reasons, have tried to harm the film, I will say the same thing I said to the critic at the St. Pete Times, "You can have any opinion you want. But this is a unique film. Discouraging someone from seeing this film could cost them their life."

I'll keep you posted.

Sincerely, Peter N. Alexander
Director
The Profit

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