“THE WOMEN IN BLACK” AUDIENCES AND THE INSTITUTIONS The movie the women in black has both a primary and secondary target audience. A primary target audience are an audience who the distributing companies are desperately trying to reach and pull in where the secondary target audience are those who are potential consumers who may also be interested in the production. Audiences can be classified using three methods; Demographics, Psychographics and Lifestyle subsets all in which give us an insight to the type of the audience for the movie. I believe the target audience for the movie “The women in black” are both genders, male and female and are under 25 years of age ranging mainly from around 12 to 25 due to the fact the certificate for this movie was lowered to 12 allowing newly Harry Potter fans watch the movie on the big screen. I think that the demographics of the primary target audience is CD which includes the lower middle, skilled working and the working class this is because the main target audience for horror movies are found in this class area. The psychographics of the primary target audience is Individuals as they are hard to place because of their young age and are seen to be less experienced in the world. Finally, the Lifestyle subsets of some of the primary target audience is the Harry Potter fan base this is down to the main role being played by Daniel Radcliff and this fan base will include both new and old fans. The secondary target audience for the movie “The women in black” are both genders and are aged 25 and over this links to the demographics of the secondary target audience being B meaning the mature higher middle class. This is down to the fact that beforehand the movie was actually a book which was turned into a play which was shown in theatres. These activities link well with the stereotype of the higher middle class meaning the movie might appeal to them. Finally, the psychographics of the secondary target audience is succeeders down to the fact that the higher middle class are wealthy therefore placing them into this category. Women in black was marketed in many ways allowing them to grab their target audience’s attention. The movie “The women in black” was promoted constantly on the internet using social networking sites such as Facebook which the movie had its own group which would release information about the film allowing them to reach their primary young target audience who are renowned to use social networking sites. YouTube was used to create competitions for the target audiences obviously appealing to the younger section of the primary target audiences who are the majority of people to use this site. This not only made the movie well known but enticed the audience allowing them to subconsciously become hooked and very interested in the upcoming film. “The women in black” was advertised on well-known and very popular radio stations such as Heart and Kiss allowing them yet again using a different media platform to connect to their target audience. Now in relation to audience genres the main one would obviously be those who enjoy supernatural thriller movies, the film would have no doubt been able to reach most of audience as many of these being young would be active on some social networking site therefore they would receive the information. Finally, the secondary target audience would clearly see the billboard while stuck in traffic on the way to work as they are mostly located in big cities meaning they would have seen the advertisement. The advertisement plus the fact the movie is a well-known piece of literature would make the movie more appealing to this target audience. The media campaign for this movie was massive, covering all types of media platforms from online to press print allowing them to reach their target audiences and let them grow. The films estimated budget was $17,000,000 which around 50% was spent on advertisement which contributed to the fact the film was such a success attracting a wide audience.
The mass marketing material used made the film a huge success as it built a hype up among the younger generations but also made a wide audience aware of its release meaning the audience for this film increased. Daniel Radcliffe having the main role meant he had made many appearances in magazines which would appeal to both primary and secondary target audiences. The online marketing was huge, making an appearance on big online names such as Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube creating a lot of hype. Daniel Radcliffe also made numerous appearances on talk shows and had interviews in order to entice the audience and make them aware of the film and help reach different areas of the movies target audience. The film also had a world premiere in which many Alist celebrities attended grabbing the attention of many Harry Potter fans that night which due to the fact they casted Daniel Radcliffe as the main character in the film. Overall, I think the marketing materials used for the film were successful as it reached and entice the target audience to watch the film. The release of the film was massive appearing on 2,855 screens in the USA therefore generating over $20,874,072 in revenue. The film however only had 412 screening in the UK therefore generating £3,153,020 in revenue, however the movie did top the UK highest grossing theatrical horror film chart since records began. I think the success of this movie was mainly down to the marketing which was shown over a wide range of media platforms allowing them to reach their target audiences and make the film well-known. The estimated budget for “The women in black” was $17,000,000. Much of this would have been probably spent on marketing which is why it was such a box office success by achieving a box office record, the most successful horror film in British history. The film spent three weeks at the top of the charts in the U.K. leading to a box office gross of $23.2 million toppling the previous record holder of Nicole Kidman's The Others from 2001 which had the gross of $18.9 million. On the opening weekend in the USA it made over $20,874,000 making back in the first weekend what was the estimated budget for the film meaning everything else was clear profit. According to Box Office Mojo the film “The Woman in Black” attained a box office gross of just over $50 million in the USA. I think one of the main reasons the film was such a success was because the main actor was Daniel Radcliffe. This was the next big film he had been in after the success of the Harry Potter franchise so his fans were likely to come see his next film, the movie was also put at the certificate 12 by the BBFC allowing them nicely to grab the attention of the younger generation of Harry Potter fans. They used his face as the main focus for the teaser poster so the audience could not miss the fact he was the main character and therefore would play a massive role in the film. The second reason I believe why the movie was such a success is because of the vast amount of marketing. The film was advertised over numerous media platforms including radio stations, billboards, social networking sites and TV. They targeted their audience by advertising in areas they knew would get the primary target audience’s attention, however unlike other horror movies “The women in black” saw a large increase in their secondary audience which I believe was due to the size of the marketing.