INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH

Brooke Medcalf

2014 Thriller Films

In 2014, there was a total of 61 thriller films released including the well known titles of The Hunger Games Mockingjay Part One, The Purge: Anarchy and Into the Storm. Due to being such a highly popular genre it made a total domestic gross of $969,894,737 and sold a total of 181,714,136 cinema tickets.

2015 Thriller Films

In 2015, there was a total release of 71 thriller films including well known titles such as Knock Knock, The Martian and The Hunger Games Mockingjay Part Two. Within this year the genre scored a total domestic gross of $1,088,423,406 and sold a total of 129,113,061 cinema tickets.

How profitable is the genre?

The genre proves to be profitable, if you combine the total domestic gross made within 2014 and 2015, it equals a grand total of $2,058,318,143 and the total ticket sales combined for two years results in a total of 247,827,197 tickets for people to see the films in cinema. This proves that the genre is highly profitable due to its popularity with the audiences.

Most Successful Films 2014/15

The most successful films, top ranked in both years resulted to be within the same franchise – The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part One and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part Two, starring Jennifer Lawrence.The second most successful film of 2014 was Gone Girl, whereas the second most successful in the following year was The Martian.The third most successful films for both years follow that pattern for The Maze Runner and Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, starring Dylan O’Brien.

Why were these films most successful?The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part One and Part Two were the top successful films for both years whereas The Maze Runner and Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials were the third most successful films for both years. Both of which had originated from book series, which built up the huge fan base, and when it was announced that both would be portrayed in a motion picture, this caused an uproar throughout social media. Due to word of the mouth and sharing things via social media sites causes a huge advantage for further promotion of the films, including trailers, posters, billboards – featured in towns, cities, and on buses, merchandise, interviews with the cast and crew, film premieres etc. The anticipation built right up until the films were released in cinema, which granted a huge profit for both franchises, resulting in the high success of them both. The major contributor to the success was the audience – who were teenagers and young adults which were those that the books were aimed at.

Audience CharacteristicsThe audience for this genre mainly begins at teenagers and young adults as the majority of these films such as those included in The Hunger Games and The Maze Runner franchises, were rated at PG-13 resulting that parents are to be aware that some of the scenes may not be suitable for viewing if children are under the age of 13. These films also feature violence and strong language as well as themes of death which may be unsettling and inappropriate to be presented to a younger audience. The overall genre is mainly aimed at males however it is available to be watched by anyone as stereotypically women are more likely to watch romantic, comedic films whereas men find their interest in action packed, thrilling films. Thriller films include sub-genres ranging from crime – including gangs, drugs, money, alcohol, power etc. to psychology – studying the mind frames and emotional states of characters, therefore proving that the genre would be highly unsuitable and risky to allow a younger generation to watch in regards to their safety and wellbeing. The social class for this particular genre would be C1 – D due to the overall stereotypical audience types – those who are of a higher class stereotypically wouldn’t go out of their way to see a thriller film for example.

ConclusionTo summarise my research, I have learnt that the audience that thriller films are specifically aimed at are teenagers (some of which may be cautioned to hold parental supervision due to unsettling scenes) and young adults as some of these films originate from book series that have already been aimed at this age group. The reason to this as this generation enjoy the sense of danger and suspense, and to see characters that are within a similar age group will also spark curiosity to encourage even more people to see the film as they are able to empathise with the characters going through this situation more as opposed to an adult watching the film due to the difference in age. The genre holds specific features such as violence, strong language, themes including death, money, alcohol and weapons which also contributes to the tension and suspense that builds throughout the film – which is suitable for both genres however would seem to interest the male gender more. The thriller films will also include major plot twists which would also be difficult for younger audiences to understand. This research will help me develop my film trailer further as I understand that teenagers are the main target audience and the characters will be of a similar age therefore making a film including these characteristics will ensure that there will be a mass audience guaranteed to purchase tickets to watch the film.