The first day of the release of the movie saw a great turnout. However

Question

The first day of the release of the movie saw a great turnout. However, a significant proportion of viewers came out of the movie theaters disappointed. Clearly, the movie won’t fare well in terms of viewership.

Which one of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the conclusion above?

Which one of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the conclusion above?

A- The reaction of viewers who watched the movie on the first day will be available to those who are still to watch the movie.

B- Among the movies whose first day performers was disappointing, hardly any movie went on to become successful.

C- People differed in their opinions regarding which part of the movie was most disappointing.

D- People who go to watch a movie on the first day are movie enthusiasts who are quick to watch new movies but also as quick to disparage them for trivial reasons.

E- Movie goers lay far greater trust on the reviews by movie critiques than on the opinions of the first day movie viewers.

sssjav · Accepted Answer

ipaintandy E- Movie goers lay far greater trust on the reviews by movie critiques than on the opinions of the first day movie viewers. Option E suggests that movie goers may far greater trust on movie critiques, but leaves open the possibility of the critiques finding the movie to be a disappointment as well. We are not provided with any information about the movie critiques and thus this option leaves open a tiny window for counter argument / for the movie to STILL not fare well in terms of viewership. D- People who go to watch a movie on the first day are movie enthusiasts who are quick to watch new movies but also as quick to disparage them for trivial reasons. What is meant by this option is that the first day goers may have critiqued the movie as a disappointing one for trivial reasons; thus, the same might not help us make a conclusion about the overall viewership. A majority of people (not the first day goers) may find the movie worth a watch without any complaints (this can be said because of the usage of the word "trivial") I would choose option D because it doesn't have any gaps that'd need to be filled (and because option E does have one of those) _______________________________________________ One Kudos a day keeps <700 scores away

DavidTutorexamPAL · Answer

Breaking down our passage, we have:
1. first day had great turnout
2. (but) was disappointing for many
3. (therefore) movie will not succeed.

As the logic is extremely clear, we'll first try to infer our answer, a Precise approach.
To weaken the argument, we need to show that (2) does not imply (3), i.e to break the link between 'disappointment on the first day' and failure. An immediate likely guess is that movie success doesn't depend on how people feel after they see the movie but based on how many arrive to it in the first place. Another way is to say that the first day is somehow significantly different for some reason and therefore not indicative.

Looking at our answers, (D) is exactly our second option and is therefore correct.

CaptainMeow · Answer

The conclusion is based on viewership. Choice D leaves the possibility of the first day disappointed viewers to go and tell other people to not watch it. Choice E eliminates this gap and says that the people generally tend to form their opinions on what the critiques have to say. Yes, It does on the other hand, introduces another gap which is that the critiques are the majority of the people flocking to the theatres on the first day of the release.

I just think the gap in option E is a bigger stretch than the one in option D, hence IMO option E is the correct answer

GMATNinja ? Please help

IanStewart · Answer

This is not a good question; this, for example: "Movie goers lay far greater trust on the reviews by movie critiques than on the opinions of the first day movie viewers" is not written in English, so it's hard to even tell if it's a right or wrong answer.

You can't know what a good answer to this question would even be without information about how moviegoers decide which movies to see. We know many first-day viewers didn't like the movie. Does that even matter? Maybe viewers choose movies based on trailers, or newspaper reviews, or the actors in the film, and the opinions of the first-day public are irrelevant. Or maybe viewers choose movies based on the opinions of their eager friends who see movies on opening day. Answer E tells us that movie-goers don't care much about the first-day audience's reaction. So how can E be a wrong answer here? Answer E tells us that all of the evidence used to support the conclusion is irrelevant to that conclusion. Of course E weakens the argument. But D also weakens the argument by suggesting that the first-day reaction to this movie was typical, and might not be shared by later audiences. If we assume that ticket purchases are related to how "disappointing" audiences find a movie (something we have no basis to assume, based on the passage, incidentally), then D tells us that later audiences might like the movie and buy more tickets.

There's no way to pick a right answer to questions with logic this porous.

chrisbender · Answer

Honestly I agree. A youtube influencer(as an example) could have a personal bias against someone in the film or dislike it for another trivial reason. Disparaging them doesn't mean they will not tell their friends(or in this case followers) not to go see the movie.

shubham88 · Answer

Could someone explain how to negate A. if The reaction of viewers who watched the movie on the first day will not be available to those who are still to watch the movie then how will people come to know the movie is bad.

albsilvag · Answer

Conclusion of the stimulus:  Clearly, the movie won’t fare well in terms of viewership.

A- The reaction of viewers who watched the movie on the first day will be available to those who are still to watch the movie. --> If any, strengthens the conclusion --> INCORRECT

B- Among the movies whose first day performers was disappointing, hardly any movie went on to become successful. --> If any, strengthens the conclusion --> INCORRECT

C- People differed in their opinions regarding which part of the movie was most disappointing. --> That they differ on the parts that they dislike do not harm the conclusion that they did not like and that thus the film won't do well. --> INCORRECT

D- People who go to watch a movie on the first day are movie enthusiasts who are quick to watch new movies but also as quick to disparage them for trivial reasons. --> Disqualifies the group that went the first day, saying that they are not representative of the performance of the movie. --> CORRECT
 
 E- Movie goers lay far greater trust on the reviews by movie critiques than on the opinions of the first day movie viewers. --> It could be the case that movie critiques were those that went the first day and have delivered a bad review, so it is not clear whether this weakens the conclusion --> INCORRECT

Crytiocanalyst · Answer

A- The reaction of viewers who watched the movie on the first day will be available to those who are still to watch the movie.
The reviews would affect the movie goers therefore strengthen the argument

B- Among the movies whose first day performers was disappointing, hardly any movie went on to become successful. 
This definitely lends strengthen

C- People differed in their opinions regarding which part of the movie was most disappointing. 
This indicates that there are no of disappointing parts which would ultimately lead to the downfall of the movie

D- People who go to watch a movie on the first day are movie enthusiasts who are quick to watch new movies but also as quick to disparage them for trivial reasons. 
This definitely weakens since the movie was put dwon for irrelevant which if ignored would provide a great box office hit

E- Movie goers lay far greater trust on the reviews by movie critiques than on the opinions of the first day movie viewers.
There also exists the possibility that the movie critiques can also rate the movie to be bad which would lead to the downfall of the movie

Therefore IMO D

playthegame · Answer

Why not E, I was between D and E, the logic does not seem watertight as mentioned in the previous post...

Gemmie · Answer

The conclusion states that the movie won't fare well in terms of viewership based on the negative reaction of viewers on the first day. To weaken this conclusion, we need to find a reason why the initial reaction might not be representative of the overall viewership.

The correct answer is:  D. People who go to watch a movie on the first day are movie enthusiasts who are quick to watch new movies but also as quick to disparage them for trivial reasons.

This weakens the conclusion by suggesting that the negative opinions from the first day viewers might not be representative of the general audience. These enthusiasts may criticize the movie for trivial reasons, which doesn't necessarily mean that the broader public will also be disappointed.

---

Why the Other Options Are Incorrect:

A- The reaction of viewers who watched the movie on the first day will be available to those who are still to watch the movie. 
This option might support the conclusion rather than weaken it, as it implies that negative reactions could spread, possibly deterring others from watching the movie.

B- Among the movies whose first day performers was disappointing, hardly any movie went on to become successful. 
This option supports the conclusion by indicating that movies with disappointing first-day reactions generally don't do well, thus reinforcing the idea that this movie might also fare poorly.

C- People differed in their opinions regarding which part of the movie was most disappointing. 
While this suggests that the disappointment was not uniform, it doesn't weaken the overall conclusion that the movie won't fare well. It still implies that many people were disappointed.

E- Movie goers lay far greater trust on the reviews by movie critiques than on the opinions of the first day movie viewers. 
This might slightly weaken the conclusion, but it doesn’t directly address the core issue. It focuses more on the influence of critiques rather than the first-day audience's reaction.

KKIHIRA · Answer

I think the confusion is the distinction between weakening a conclusion and destroying a conclusion. 
Or maybe I'm just not understanding......hear me out.

If we go back to the basics, any passage/ sentence will (broadly) have 3 parts.

Premise, Assumption and Conclusion.

In order to weaken a conclusion you have to attack the assumption or the link. In this question, the link is first day movie goers sentiment about the movie and the future success in terms of viewership.

First day movie goer disappointment  ---(assumption/link)---  Viewership .

So given the link (above), the assumption is that first day movie goers sentiment/opinion  influences  future movie goers or viewership. Because if first day movie goers opinions  does not  influence viewership, then the conclusion falls apart.

The goal is the weaken this link by choosing a statement that either shows a lack of influence (breaking it) or a statement that shows a casual relationship rather than a direct one.

D- Weakens the conclusion by showing casual link of first day movie goers  may not  be indicative of future viewership

E- Breaks the conclusion by saying there is a strong reason to believe there is no relationship between first movie goers and future viewership.

So does breaking conclusion the same thing as weakening it? 
And if so, break>weaken?

At least from what I've learned on multiple prep material, the answer is yes. Breaking the conclusion is weakening the conclusion and if faced with both, you choose breaking the conclusion. BUT. You can also argue that we're not asked "what would destroy the conclusion." We're asked what would weaken it.

Either way, this question is tricky since GMAT Qs are much less subtle when it comes to the correct answer. The gap between the last 2 choices (given that you've crossed out 3) is larger than what's being presented here.

If there's any logical step I missed, please correct me.

pappal · Answer

Absolutely D provides the reason to weaken the conclusion.
E doesn't weakens as its nowhere mentioned that reviews were positive, otherwise E would have been the best choice.

The first day of the release of the movie saw a great turnout. However

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The first day of the release of the movie saw a great turnout. However

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