Audience Research - Comedy

Audience Research

Comedy

Statistics show that 64% of people like watching a comedy film showing it appeals to a wide range of people and is also the most popular out of all other genres (horror = 32%, romance 26%, action = 50%). Having said this the highest grossing films of all time are usually action or adventure films with comedy films slightly further down the list showing people might be more likely to go see a film at the cinema for its stunning visuals (common in action/adventure films) not often seen in comedies and therefore comedies don't perform as well as hoped and to be a massive success they have to attract wide audiences of all ages.

The usual age for someone watching a comedy movie is very dependent on the content of the film, for example children’s films labelled as PG’s or U’s can have comical scenes in which would link it to the comedy genre the films would appeal to young children as well as parents as they are often family film, however the audience would be completely different for a comedy film labelled as a 12 or a 15, these films have the target audience of the certificated age given to the movie as the base, the movies are likely to appeal to people over the labelled age of film simply because comedy has a large target market appealing to larger proportion of the comedy theme market. The final age partition of the comedy target audience is 18 certificates, these film although still based around comedy are often more explicit in terms of language and scenes, making the film heavily aimed at the over 18s. 

Romantic comedies tend to be incredibly popular with females aged 15-30 with action adventure films being popular with males of the same age but not as popular as comedies. Males of all ages prefer comedy over action, fantasy horror, science fiction and all other genres which surprises me as I would have assumed the most popular genre for men would have been action. This shows that comedies have a much bigger target audience than I first would have thought and appeal to old as well as young men. Females also love comedy films with it being the most popular genre above thriller, action, family and all other genres. Romantic comedies and drama were the only other two genres who were nearly as popular again showing that comedies appeal to a wide audience - more than just teenagers and parents.

Overall the target audience is much more broad than I first imagined with comedy films being very popular with the old as well as the young and appealing to both genders when at first I thought it may have been more for males.