AS Media Studies- research task 3; institutional research

1. INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH
Shannon Doyle

2. INTRODUCTION
For this task we must research into the thriller genre throughout the
year 2012, to find out:
◦ How many thriller films were released
◦ How profitable the genre is
◦ Which films were most successful and why
◦ The characteristics of the genres audience
This will then be useful for us as we will be able to apply this new found
knowledge into our own thriller films when it comes to producing them
ourselves.

3. HOW MANY THRILLERS WERE
RELEASED DURING 2012?
According to www.the-numbers.com there were 56 thriller films
released during the period of 2012. They produced a profit of
$1,366,904,432 gaining a 15.96% share into the market.

4. WHICH THRILLERS WERE MOST
SUCCESSFUL?
From www.the-numbers.com this is the top 5 best selling thrillers of 2012:
The Hunger Games already had an enormous fan base at the time of
release due to the trilogy that was written from 2008 up to 2010, this
therefore already made it a movie which people were anticipating.
The film also had broad appeal due to the romance targeting girls,
action and destruction for the boys and good acting and a mix of the
above two for adults. This therefore all leads to the reason that the film
was so successful.

5. AUDIENCE CHARACTERISTICS.
Thriller films are predominantly targeted to people aged 18+
due to the typical conventions of thrillers which could make
them fairly disturbing to a younger audience: especially the
sub-genre of psychological thrillers. Although a large
percentage of thrillers have a rating of 15. The genre is also
apparently slightly more male orientated with a 51:49 ratio.

6. CONCLUSION.
Through conducting this research I have become aware of the
typical target audiences for thriller films and what elements
have made them successful, e.g. broad appeal. From knowing
this I could now apply this knowledge to my own production in
making sure that there are elements which appeal to a wider
range of people as well as having a clear target audience as
well. This could ensure that it is more successful in achieving
what is desired from the out-set.