Research for Media AS about Institutions in Thriller.

1. Leo Featherstone

2.  For this task I will research into a mixture of
primary and secondary sources and carry out
a market analysis of the thriller genre for the
year 2012. I will aim to find out:
- How many thriller films were released in
this period.
-How profitable the genre is.
-What films were successful and why.
-Characteristics of the audience of this genre.

3. 55 Thriller films have been released in 2012 so far according
to the website ‘www.the-numbers.com’
The Thriller genre also had a total profit of: $1,307,068,788
in 2012 making it the 4th most profitable film genre.

4.  The top 4 most popular Thrillers of 2012 so
far are:
1. The Hunger Games.
Gross: $408,010,692 Tickets sold: 52,108,645
2. Safe House.
Gross:$126,181,630 Tickets sold: 16,115,150
3. The Bourne Legacy
Gross: $112,806,385 Tickets sold:14,406,945
4. Taken 2
Gross: $105,971,469 Tickets sold:13,534,031

5.  We can presume these films we’re the most popular by certain
factors.
For example, The Hunger Games may have been the most popular
because it was an adaptation as the book came first. This would
attract the audience which read the book which received many great
reviews. Also, it wasn’t your typical thriller and was different from
previous films like it. It also had a large target audience, e.g. the age
rating was a 12A which means a lot of people were able to go see
the film for example families.
 Another factor could be because the film was a sequel to a first. For
example, ‘Taken 2’ and ‘The Bourne Legacy’ These were both
sequels which would attract a larger audience than other films
seeing as people may have seen the first film, and because they
enjoyed the first one, they might be more inclined to see the second
one to see if it is just as good or to see how the story carries on.

6.  Another factor maybe because of the actors
involved in the film, For example ‘Safe House’
Feature Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds and
because they are highly acclaimed actors and also
maybe seen as attractive in a majority of an
audience’s opinion, people may want to see the
film even more because of the actors that take
roles in the film.

7.  With help from the website
‘http://www.bfi.org.uk/education-
research/film-industry-statistics-research’
I was able to find some Exit Polls which
provided me with information on the
characteristics of the audience that watched
Thrillers in 2012.

8.  ‘Pusher’ - Certificate 18, Director: Luis Prieto
Crime Thriller. 12th October 2012
Number of people surveyed: 42
Male 74%
Female 26%
Under 25 17%
Over 25 83%
The top two ways the audience found out about the film were:
Cinema trailers: 33% Online ads:24%
This can tell us about the sort of people that went to see the Thriller. A
majority were male and a large percentage were over 25 and were people
who use technology a lot, like to be update with the gadgets they buy.
Seeing as they were watching TV or going to the Cinema or YouTube to see
the trailer and saw online ads on the internet about the film.

9. ‘A Dangerous Method’- Certificate 15, Director: David Cronenberg.
Thriller. 23rd March 2012
Number of people surveyed: 291
Male: 41%
Female: 59%
Under 35: 46%
Over 35: 54%
The top two ways the audience found out about the film were:
Cinema Trailers:29% Posters in cinema:19%
From this we can see that the type of people that saw the Thriller were
fairly balanced between gender, either male or female, but more people
were over 35. We can tell that people that saw the film found out about
it by seeing trailers and posters in the cinema, which means they
depend on going to the cinema to find out about films, which could
mean they like the old fashion ways of finding out about films.

10.  By completing this research task, and now have
an understanding on the background of the
Thriller genre and what it is like today. What
popular films I can gain inspiration from, on what
makes a certain thriller popular and a little about
what kind of people watch thrillers in the cinema.
I can apply this research to my own video, so I
know what kind of thrillers to make my video like
and also know a bit about what I my target
audience may be and how I could make my
thriller like a popular thriller in 2012.