I carried out some secondary research, following on from my primary research, which would help reinforce exactly what the target audience for my group’s film is. All of the information was derived from IMDb, which is a trusted website that provides data and information on various movies.

I focused on films of the same genre and fairly similar plots to the one my group and I are planning on producing. I closely analysed the number of votes by men and women of different age groups and looked at how that would affect my target audience. This would allow me to see what particular age groups would be appealed to our film genre.

Prisoners of 2013, pictured above, is a thriller which involves a similar plot to the one my group devised – it follows a father and detective who are desperately looking for the father’s daughter and another kidnapped girl. This meant it was a great example to compare the target audience with for our film. The data shows that men and women both rated this film highly which fits in with our target audience as we weren’t aiming at a particular sex.

It also shows that a lot of males and females under the age of 18 rated the film highly which conflicts with our target audience idea. We had the impression that the typical audience of a thriller may be older as some thriller plots can be more challenging to understand. Also, the main characters tend to be middle-aged parents, especially in kidnapping films, which means that parents may be enticed by these films.

There doesn’t appear to be much variation between the different age groups – they all seem to have rated the film at roughly the same level. This suggests that the majority of age groups enjoyed watching this particular thriller film which could have some relevance with regards to all films of this

genre. This could be due to the fact that this film is incredibly tense and suspenseful throughout, enticing all audiences.

A Walk Among the Tombstones (2014) is a crime drama-thriller of similar nature to the trailer we will be producing, although it has a lot more gore and violence than we intend to include in the trailer. The film follows an ex-policeman who is hired to track down the killer(s) of a drug dealer’s wife. Many kidnappings occur in the film which makes the data relatable to our target audience.

The statistics show that men and women on the whole, rated this film at the same level. As a group we agreed on the fact that we wouldn’t be aiming at a particular gender because either sex can enjoy the sort of film we are planning on producing. The group that appear to have rated the film the highest are males and females under 18. This highlights the belief that younger audience are attracted to films of this genre due to the action and tension within it, keeping them excited.

The older age groups all tend to rate the film at the same or similar levels showing that this film appealed to most audiences in terms of age. The 45+ age group rated the film slightly higher which could reinforce my group’s idea that older audience would too be attracted to thrillers as certain plots need deeper understanding in order to enjoy it properly.

Taken (2008), a much more well-known thriller compared to the first two, is considered one of the most successful thriller films. The plot involves a father, a former CIA operative, who finds himself having to re-employ his skills in order to locate his daughter who has been kidnapped whilst on a trip to France by traffickers.

Much like the previous films analysed, Taken also seems to have very little deviation between male and female preferences across all age groups. There are however some fairly clear distinctions between certain age groups in terms of who enjoyed the film most and therefore rated it highly.

Again, this thriller seems to have struck a chord with the younger under 18 group. Also the 18-29 group have rated the film highly which supports the ideas of my group that younger audiences will be drawn in by the film more.

As we reach the older audiences, it is clear that the popularity of this film started to fall, particularly amongst the 45+ age group. This could suggest that thriller films with an action element to it may not be so sought after with this generation of people. Although, it is only this film that has provided this idea, it seems logical that older audiences won’t be appealed to action thriller films as it may be too fast-paced and chaotic for them to handle.