Audience research Daniel Robbins

Focus group for primary research

Primary Research 1

As part of my audience research I carried out two primary research tasks the first one being interviewing a small group of people (4 people) about their dislikes and likes about the super hero genre, its storylines and characters. I gathered my information for this research by asking a series of questions which can be seen on the following slides.

What do people expect to see in a superhero film?

Villains

Superhero

Victim

Power

Capes

Pants over tights

Shining lights

A good story line

An intriguing story line that captures audiences attention immediately

What do people like about superhero films?

Lots of action

Interesting plot

Colourful

Excitement

Fun

Gripping stories

Tight costume

Mysterious

The fact that you can choose a side (good guys or bad guys)

What do people dislike about superhero films?

Sometimes they can be long winded

When there is no action in the film

Cheesy

Cliché

People die

Primary Research 2

As part of my audience research I carried out two primary research tasks the second one being narrowing down the group I spoke to down to 2 people. I focussed on discussing specifically on real superhero films and what they thought of them.

Spiderman

“It’s nice to see films such as this which bring to life the comic books, I prefer to watch films that are real actors rather than cartoons”.

Parts of the storyline are normal i.e. their school life therefore as an audience member who is also I at school I can relate to the stereotypical character types that you would find a in real life schools for example, the chav, the geek, the popular one etc.

I enjoy the fact that there are more than one storyline going on – the “saving the world” storyline along with the romantic one, like between Spiderman (peter) and Mary-Jane

Batman

Films such as this portray well to the audience through things such as the gadgets costumes etc.

Some of the settings i.e. the city make it more realistic therefore more enjoyable

Action packed

I enjoy this film because of the actors/stars in it.

Costumes are creative and attract my interest.

Secondary research. I believe that films such as The Dark Knight, Spider-Man, Batman, X-men

and Superman returns would have primarily being a success in attracting its audiences due to the mass scale of the production. All of these films have been distributed by big/well-known institutions (American or Japanese).

Another attraction to films such as The Dark Knight are their big stars for example at the time of its release the death of Heath Ledger (The Joker) meant many fans were desperate to see his last completed film.

A lot of these films particularly batman, spider man and superman have also previously been popular comic books therefore seeing them come to life may be a big attraction for enthusiasts and young audiences; potentially young adults who may have grown up reading these comic books.

Also with big institutions comes big budgets there studios such as Warner brothers and 20th century fox largely attract audiences as they know they are going to be watching something spectacular with no expenses spared.

Secondary research. Films such as The Dark Knight Rises may attract

similar audiences to the first one therefore teens, young adults and potentially families. All of these audiences may have been fans of the first film and wish to go and watch this film to see if surpasses the expectations of its predecessor.

I believe the majority of audiences will be male potentially who are still in some form of education.

Other audiences may be simply enthusiasts of the genre and the previous film.

The small percentage of audience members which I believe to be female may be of a young age, possibly still in school who also have been a fan of the comic books and previous films.

The Amazing Spider Man may also have similar target audiences potentially that are slightly younger than the of The Dark Knight, I believe these films are more family orientated therefore likely to equally attract both genders.

Secondary research. Listed below are some of the main points as to why “The Dark Knight Rises”, “The Avengers” and “The Amazing Spider Man” will be successful in finding audiences. (Taken from “Long Distance Box Office: Summer's Superhero Movies!” by Edward Douglas. February 13, 2012

The article states that The Dark Knight Rises has a HUGE advantage, being the sequel to a $533 million grossing movie that really changed how moviegoers looked at superhero movies.

The fact that it changed peoples opinions on the genre is a big attraction for this film and audiences may want to see if the sequel can do the same.

The avengers: hopes to prove the sum is greater than the parts by combining six characters from previous summer blockbusters into one large scale epic that's been the culmination of years of planning.

The anticipation for this film will create a big hype prior to its release and will be one of the main reasons why it will be successful in finding audiences.

The Avengers has a great advantage over the other two being the first movie of the summer which means it can explode out of the gate and get everyone excited about the summer (and the other two movies).

Being the first movie out means that it is likely to attract large audiences and possibly steal them away from the other two films - if you have already seen one superhero film you may not wish to go and see another in such a short space of time.

Obviously, one of the biggest selling point for "Avengers" is the return of Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark--something that helped the two "Iron Man" movies gross $300 million domestically

The Dark Knight Rises is a slam dunk no-brainer if only for the fact that like with The Avengers, this is about the return of a fan favourite, which is Christian Bale's Batman as directed by Christopher Nolan. In this case, the anticipation for their return has built over the four years since

All three of the summer's superhero movies should open in over 4,000 theatres and have the benefit of being in enhanced formats like IMAX.

This will have a major advantage for all three films as they will be shown in many cinemas across the world therefore reach mass audiences. The enhanced formats such as IMAX may be a big attraction for fans on the genre who want to see these films in the best possible ways.

The stars and directors of a film particularly in the superhero genre can be a major attraction and selling point for the movies.

For example, British audiences in particular, are enticed by the fact that they will be “seeing one of their own” on the big screen.

With British stars such as Ciarán Hinds, Rhys Ifans, Tom Hiddleston and Tom Hardy staring in Avengers, Spider-Man and Ghost Rider, these films are set to be a big success especially withing the UK.

However its not just british actors that are the big attraction. Actors such as Heatn Ledger were a major attraction for The Dark Knight. This was to be the stars last completed film before his death shortly after, this was a major selling bpoint and could have contributed to the big sucess opf the film – the fact that this would give fans of the fanous actor their last chance to see his last ever completed film.

But its not always about the actors, director can also have a major influence on the success of a film

Director Christopher Nolan is a big attraction for audiences and is one of the reasons why Man of Steel is likely to be a big success.

Nolan is responsible for films such as inception, following and the batman trilogy therefore audiences may wish to go and see films such as Man of steel just to see if his latest work can meet expectations of his previous films.

Secondary research.