Will Ferrell Says First ‘Anchorman’ Test Screening Tanked as Film Scored a 50/100: We ‘Lost the Audience’ With the Original Kidnapping Ending

variety.com:

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Will Ferrell reunited with his “Anchorman” co-star Christina Applegate on an episode of the latter’s “Messy” podcast, where the duo reflected on the 20th anniversary of their comedy classic.

Ferrell remembered the first test screening for “Anchorman” and how it did not go according to plan. “It was such a hard movie to get made in the first place and when it finally came around to when, ‘Oh wait, now Dreamworks wants to make it,’ it just felt like we were playing with the house’s money,” Ferrell said (via IndieWire). “So we were like, ‘OK, gosh, they’re letting us make this crazy movie.

Let’s just do all the comedy things we’ve wanted to try that other people have said, “No, you can’t do that in a comedy,”‘” Ferrell said. “We were just breaking the rules and having so much fun.” Ferrell and director Adam McKay shot an original ending to “Anchorman” that riffed on Patty Hearst’s kidnapping, which didn’t sit well with the audience at the test screening. “We put the movie together, we do our first test screening.

You test screen your movie and it’s a score from zero to 100,” Ferrell said. “We were like, ‘That seemed to play pretty great.’ We get the score back; it’s a 50.