Target Audience ResearchWe have decided to do some Target Audience Research to establish the demographics of our genre, action, from the audience's point of view so that we can decide who our two minute film opening is aimed at.  Here is some secondary research from the UK Film Council about our genre:

The above data from page 18 shows the number of films consumed by the general GB public aged 16+ watched in the last three months.  It shows, as is said in the text, how important films are today for both genders and all ages.  From the pie chart we can see that from the representative sample, 42% of the nation watch 6 or more films in that time period.  The table tells us that for both genders they watch in the 'Medium' range with over 40% and decreases to light in the 55+ column.  1,060 males and 1,168 females watch movies in that time period of three months. 

The data from page 105 above shows the types of films that people generally enjoy watching.  This will help us establish if our genre is liked by the generally public (mainstream) or if it is not that well known (niche).  Our genre, which is action, is the 5th most popular type of film watched by the public at 50% in the UK which suggests that the genre is mainstream as it targets a very large group of people. 

This data from page 106 shows the types of films the general public enjoy in more detail than the last data from page 105.  This data shows more of the demographics from the public as it shows for each genre their age, gender, parenthood and social class. For our genre of action, the highest percentage for gender and age are males aged 35 and above at a percentage of 62%.  However males less than the age of 35 had a percentage of 57% which shows it had a 5% difference with the males above 35, meaning that our film opening should aim at mainly males.  Also females less than 35 had a percentage of 52% that enjoy action films with a 5% difference between males less than 35 giving us information that it should be mainly targeted at people under 35 but also females might enjoy that genre even though it might not have been targeted at them.  So from this information, action films are targeted mainly at males aged 35+ that are parents of a social class of C2. 

The data shown on page 116 has the types of films that the general public of the UK consider their favourites.  They have chosen up to three per respondent to what they thought their favourite film was.  Most people from the genres preferred Comedy the best.  Our genre is 4th most preferred on the list at 20% showing that it is mainstream and well known meaning that our film opening will be watched by many. 

The information from page 117 shows more in depth detail about the public's favourite type of film.  This shows the demographics of the public but not the psychographics of the public as we don't know what their opinions, interests and attitudes are towards that genre.  This research tells us that action films are mostly appreciated by males under the age of 35 with a percentage of 37% and the rest of the groups are in the percentages of twenties or teens. It is liked by people that are parents with a percentage of 26% compared to 17% that don't have children and the main social class that say that action is their favourite film is C2 and DE with the same percentage of 23% with the other social classes not that far behind.  This establishes that males say that action films are their favourite type of film.  So from this data action films are preferred by males under the age of 35 who are parents of a social class of C2 or DE.

To further establish my genre, I have further developed my research by looking at some websites for different target audiences.   

From the website www.the-numbers.com/market/ I have found what the top grossing genres are between 1995 to 2014. The highest grossing genre is comedy but the genre that we are going to do is 3rd from being the top grossing genre as action has 686 movies and a total gross of $30,208,417,090. 

Also the table below shows that most of the movies that were the top movie of each year included live action or mainly action showing that the public who go to the cinema enjoy watching a film with action.  This helps us to think carefully about the plot of our film opening to make it creative so that the audience can be interested from the beginning.

I found some information above about the top movies at the box office at the moment on www.launchingfilms.com and it shows that there are mostly horror films and cartoons on at the moment.  I think it is due to the time of year as it is coming up to Halloween so not many adventure films would be out at the moment but there will be in the coming months. 

On the bfi website it shows lots about films that were released and the best films released by year. In the table below, it shows the films that were released in the UK by genre in 2013. This shows that for our genre is about average as action has an average box office of 22,239 per site.

Also from the same website, I found a table of the number of films released by genre in 2013. This establishes to us that for that year, 47 action films were released which was the 4th highest genre to be released. Plus the gross box office is £215.4 million.

This table below shows UK films released by genre in 2013. This implies that for a particular genre there was a film that was made that had the top performing title. The top performing title for action is Fast and Furious 6. Also action topped the box office by genre for UK establishing that action was most popular that year.

This table shows the popularity of different genres in 2013. It shows that Action had 6.7% of films released from the other genres and the top grossing film was Iron Man 3.