I found that there was a trend between the audience figures and the country in which the film was made - those films created in the USA by American companies generally had a much higher grossing profit than those made by companies in other countries such as the UK and India.
Film Industry workers find it beneficial to collect and collate quantitative data on audience trends as they have solid figures to base their own movie ventures on. Because of the huge costs of creating movies, industries cannot afford to bank on hypothetical concepts of the film viewer - they need a guarantee that their financial investments will pay off! Therefore, they rely on the cold, hard facts. For example, if the trends saw that
Qualitative Research
Qualitative methods of Audience Research are beneficial to film distributors as they allow them to go further than simply gathering numerical data about their audience, as is the case with quantitative research. It is a way for researchers to gather an in-depth understanding of human ideas and behaviour. In film it can be used by both researcher and distributor to monitor the reaction of the audience in response to a particular idea or medium.
Focus Groups/Pre-Screening
Pre-screenings are special previews of movies, often used as part of a film's production and release cycle. A focus group of a carefully selected group of people, representing all demographics, sit in on an early screening of a film and their responses are carefully documented in high detail. Usually members of the focus group will fill out detailed response surveys and some may even have interviews. Sometimes the focus audiences are instructed not to discuss their thoughts on the movie amongst each other so as to guarantee wholly unbiased responses from each member. Viewers' responses can sometimes be videotaped.
Pre-screenings are usually held before the marketing campaign for the film begins so as to give the film distributors an idea of who their target audience should be. The response of a focus group can also be used by the film distributors to ensure that the movie evokes the desired response. For example, a film company could use the pre-screening of their horror movie to ensure that the audience reaction is one of fear. Or they could use the screening to see which members of the audience did have the desired response and from which demographic these members belonged to.
The surveys taken by the focus group could also be used after the release of the movie as a way to evaluate the success of the film and to see whether the response of the focus group was similar to the overall response by the general public. If in the focus group it was mainly the women who said they enjoyed the film, was this also the case when the film was released to the wider audience? The distributors could use this information to measure the success of the findings from their focus group.
Focus group screenings are very expensive to run because of all of the equipment used for each screening. In addition, the costs to record the audience responses are surprisingly high also (sometimes expensive methods such as galvanic skin responses are used). For this reason, focus screenings are used less frequently than informal test screenings.
Interviews
Face to face interviews are a lot cheaper than focus group screenings, although they are a lot more time-consuming. However, despite being very time-consuming, interviews can be better than focus group discussions for getting useful information because you are likely to get a more honest, unbiased response. Following the viewing of a film, a group discussion of about 25-30 of the viewers is one way to gather feedback on the movie. However, it is a natural human response to adapt personal thoughts to fit in with the majority idea, even without realising it. So to avoid getting subconsciously biased responses from their focus group members, distributors may decide to hold individual interviews as opposed to recording or sitting in on group discussions.
Reviews and Debates
Movie reviews can come in a number of different varieties and through a wide selection of media types. Newspapers often have a movie reviews section and although less common radio reviews are not unheard of. As online blogging becomes more popular, it seems that online amateur movie reviews are becoming more popular.
Some popular british film critics:
- Mark Kemode: Horror film buff, writes for The Observer
- Phillip French: Former radio producer, film critic for The Observer for 50 years
- Claudia Winkleman: First female presenter of BBC1's 'Film'
Movie reviews are hugely sought after during the release of a film by the audience. In recent times, during the economic crisis we've been facing in the UK, people have become a lot more careful with their money. Nobody wants to waste hard-earned cash on a rubbish movie - that's where film reviews come in. Rather than paying to see a film and then regretting it after, now more than ever people turn to movie reviews to decide whether or not a film is worth going to see. A bad film review, particularly by a well-known critic, can really damage the reputation of a film and the number of people that go to see it. Alternatively, a good film review can really be the making of a movie. With the right people saying the right things about a movie, profits made can be an impressive amount larger than initially predicted.
Online debates are everywhere! People always want to share their views and opinions on movies and particular characters/storylines. It's a satisfying experience to find that someone else agrees with you and sometimes it can be even more satisfying to find somebody who disagrees so that you are able to fight your case. Debates can be used by the audience as a means of social interaction under the Uses and Gratifications theory by Katz and Blumer. Audience members who have seen a particular film could gain pleasure from the social interaction that comes with the online discussions and debates on it.
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