Institutional Research

My chosen film genre is thriller/ suspense; this was the fifth most top grossing genres since 1998. (http://www.the-numbers. com)

These figures show us how the different movie genres differ on how they sell in the market; from this table we are aware that comedy is the most top grossing genre competing with the opposing nine. But from the movie statistics, which have been made, there’s is a major decrease in how many films are produced within the thriller genre compared to comedy. There is a difference of 1295. Therefore this would obviously differ on what how many people will watch this genre. Comedy has released 2,025 movies but the market gross is $19,103,395, which is lower than the Thriller/ Suspense as this was $20,036,574, but only had 730 movies released so this is a difference of $933,179. The difference in this shows us that thriller movies may be a better quality than comedy as there is so many comedy films made, a percentage of these most not be as good as the majority of thrillers most be made up a better standard so this explains the higher average gross figures.

This graph shows us how the figures of market share and ticket sales differ every year since 1995 to now. From this we are able to see the major decrease in 1996. 2003, 2005 and 2014 compared to the other years which seemed quite successful especially 1997, 1998, 2002 and 2012. Looking at the other statistics, the total mean seems to increase and decrease within six years so from looking at the decrease in 2013 and 2014, we should see an increase next year as of the fall recently. 2012 had the largest ticket sales of all times within this time period, since that was recent it suggest there is a potential to reach this high point again and even go higher. The fall in 2003-2011 may have been caused by the credit crunch as people will have balanced their income and not have been able to spend as much money on luxuries.

From this we are able to get a general overview of the most popular thriller movies released in box office during the period of 1995-2014, we can see clearly that the majority of successful movies were rated PG-13 which is the equivalent of the censorship of 12A in the UK. This age will restrict who can see the film and whether children can view this with adult consent. Titanic which was disrubuted by Paramount Pictures.

2012In 2012, The Hunger Games was the highest rank of thriller; Lionsgate distributed it with the rating PG-13/12A. Therefore this limits the audience, as it’s under adults consent whether a child can view this motion picture as it’s censored because of the material within the film, in this case, it may be violence. The sales of this film may be all down to the fact that they were well known, popular novels before they were released as films plus as they have sequels, this may be a good selling point for these genres of films.

The Theatrical Performance for The Hunger Games

Taken 2 was the second most popular film of 2012 within this genre and this may be down the fact that it is highly ranked and has a large revenue stream. The advertising of these companies may also differ on how the films sell. As this was a sequel, people who watched and enjoyed taken would expect Taken 2 to be just as good so this would increase the sells.From this table you are aware that there is no major company which distribute thriller films, they all differ and oppose in popularity but looking at statistics you can see it varies from Univeral, Lionsgate to IFC films. The total number of tickets sold was $191,097,437.

2014Comparing these to a less popular year, 2014. Already from these results, we are able to see that the films are highly rated as the majority of them are rated R/ 15. Therefore this already closes in the target audience as there may be a lot of younger people who go to watch films these days and this major target audience are unable to view these films. From looking at the theatrical distributors, we can see that 20th century box have released the most popular movie so far this year, the maze runner, but Relativity and Warner bros have released more than one film, which has been in the top 15.

The ticket sales of this year are $3,843,034, which is a major increase, comparing it from 2012.

From looking at the figures in monthly incomes, we can see that in January 2013, there was a popularity in ticket sells which suggest that because Christmas, new year and the holidays are over, perhaps people are cheering themselves up by going to the cinema, after this month there is a major decrease and this may be because everyone’s back in the ‘swing’ of reality, going to school and work therefore they don’t have time to go to the cinema as much or may not have the money to spend because of the previous months. Once again, in May 2013, there was a rise in figures and this is because of the bank holiday and Easter. In August, the highest figures we recorded and this is because of the amount release, which is targeted at children because of the summer holidays because of the amount of children out of school, this made the figures rise. The lowest figure was recorded in September and this may be because of everyone going back to school and work.

In 2014, January wasn’t as successful as 2013 was and this may be down to the films released. Instead, February saw larger figures and this might be because of Valentines Day. Once again, August saw large figures; 17,218,808 because of the summer holidays, October and November were popular months for 2012 and this may be down the release of horror/ thriller movies as it was a successful year for this genre and since Halloween and bonfire night are seasonal, this may have created this hype for these sorts of films.

So from looking at both of these years, August and December tends to be the most reliable, popular month.

SummaryFor the release of my film, I’d choose Relativity to distribute my film, this is because from looking at their data, they released the majority of thriller/ suspense films compared to others even though Lionsgate and Universal had major releases, their genre of films released varied into many different genres. I’m hoping to make the film quite arty/ surreal so it’d be released in a limited range of cinemas because of the target audience towards this sort of film and I wouldn’t want to loose out on profit from having minor ticket sales, I wouldn’t go straight to DVD because if it has been released at the cinema it is more likely to get feedback and more advertisement as cinemas would want the income of people buying food and drinks when watching this film at the cinema. Depending on the content of the film, I’d censor it as being a 12A as it’s not limiting teenagers and children to see the film, which is a major income especially in August as of the summer holidays. Because of the ideas of what the film will be based upon, I’d release this film in August because of the real event in which the film may be based upon. (Anniversary of Hiroshima – August 6th Nagasaki – August 7th.)