By identifying the audience’s: a) gender b) age c) lifestyle d) spending power

1. P3
Bethany Blackburn
Sources;
• http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-
entertainment/films/news/majority-of-star-wars-the-force-awakens-
goers-are-adult-men-with-no-kids-a6781341.html
• https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/oct/26/star-wars-the-force-
awakens-jj-abrams-average-fan
• http://digiday.com/brands/star-wars-demographics-male/

2. A - Gender
The audience for Star Wars: The Force awakens, based on gender, was, as found by breaking down the sales from the box office, mostly made up of adult
males with no children, the study showed that the bulk of the tickets sold, 58%, on the opening weekend were sold to men. Whilst Disney is usually known
as creating films for children, the Star Wars: The Force Awakens demographic broke this mind set as 71% of the audiences were represented by adults,
whilst only 20% of the audience was represented by families. The opening night for Star Wars: The Force Awakens saw an audience that was made up by
men, approximately 72%, this later fell to 65%
These results seem to prove that the return of Star Wars and strategies used by the production team, was to capture the original fans who are still fans of
the original trilogy after growing up with it. Whilst Disney have bought Lucasfilm to reinvent the Star Wars franchise after, it was thought by many that, the
franchise was let down and was drawn to a close after the reviews for the prequels that were released were a lot less positive than the fans expected. Many
of the traditional fans may have also been intrigued by the evolution of the graphics and special effects that were used within the new addition to the
franchise.
Characters have seen to increase the equality in the gender demographic for the Star Wars franchise, in The Force Awakens, Princess Leia returns, she has
proven to be popular amongst the female audience, as well as attracting the traditional fans back to the movie to see where the character has ended up
now. With feminism now on the rise, many people are quick to criticise movies when they don’t show equality between the male and female ability and
their characters. Therefore, many women may have gone to see The Force Awakens to see how Princess Leia has been portrayed as the traditional damsel in
distress in the newer movies or if she is now a strong independent woman, this would appeal to older woman who may grew up with the franchise also.
However, the newer female character, known as Rey, would appeal to the younger female audience, she has a younger appearance and is one of the main
characters in the movie, this may encourage woman to go see the movie as having one of main characters as a female is a new, revolutionary thing, which
may encourage people to see how woman are now being portrayed and how they fend for themselves, instead of being the one that the male main
character will save.
Many males may be attracted to the movie by the new villain, Kylo Ren, that takes centre stage in the movie, in a way replacing Darth Vader who was the
original villain in the original trilogy. The new main character, Finn, also appeals to the majority of the male audience, he is a Stormtrooper that has broken
out of the First Order, therefore he may appeal to both the younger and older males, as the older, traditional fans, may appreciate the transition from the
dark to the light side, however the younger males love the Stormtroopers and so will take interest in the character.

3. B - Age
A statement made by the producer of the Force Awakens JJ Abrams suggests that the target audiences for the new star wars film is adults when he
said “he wanted to make the audience feel like kids again.” this suggest that the main audience of the force awakens are older then 18. This is
because the audicne they want to attract are those who grew up on the original trilogy.
Research done by the guardian found that around 70% of ticket holders are men between the ages of 18 and 49 to support this, researchers found
that the typical follower of the Star Wars franchise is a 46 year old married male with children, this is the perfect age demographic from a marketing
point of view as the older male will most likely buy his children all of the Star Wars merchandise and may even take them to see the film, this will
then be a huge part of the children’s childhood and the thoughts and feelings for the franchise can keep being passed down to each generation,
forever keeping the franchise alive. If the male is a fan himself, he may want to go and see the film on his own first, then either go again with his
children or purchase a DVD or digital copy for home viewing. This demographic also further backs up the comment made by JJ Abrams. It also proves
that JJ has fulfilled one of the reasons he wanted to produce the new star wars episode.
The older people who grew up with the original trilogy tend to feel a connections towards the characters who are found within the older episodes
like Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker which is why they are likely to watch the film. They are more likely to go and see The Force Awakens as they will
want to experience the nostalgia and see how the franchise has evolved with the time, therefore resulting a slightly older demographic, rather than
just children and teenager, which is the normal demographic age for a Disney movie.
The small percentage that were the younger audience feel a connection towards the newer character that are only found in the force awakens like
Rey, Finn and Kylo which is why they are likely to watch the film.
The greatest demographic was an audience between the ages of 18-49, those who are 25+ will have most likely have been to see one of the original
three films in the cinema when they came out for the first time, and those who are 18-24 will have most likely been shown the franchise by a family
member, maybe their father, uncle, etc. therefore the movies will have been a key time in their life, rather than children going to see the films for
solely entertainment purposes with taking no meaning from the movie.

4. C - Lifestyle
According to Movio Media, the average advance ticket holder is someone who regular goes the cinema. They also usually travel to see big-budget
fantasies such as Jurassic World or Avengers: Age of Ultron on their opening night. According to the same source they spend 2.6 times more than
the national average amount on watching movies.
Families had only accounted for 20% of the customers which could be due to the target audience of the film being adults.
The movie was also the talk on many social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. It generated a total of over 276 million engagements across
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. This shows that the audience are very technological advanced and it is integrated into their lifestyles,
where they will post to social media sites frequently throughout the day. This therefore means when trailers, updates and posters are put on
these social media sites this means the audience are more then able to keep up tio date with whats going on .
Those who enjoy the franchise and go to see the new addition may take a liking in certain characters based on their demographic, for example
Darth Vader, the fallen Jedi, is known to have a fan base which is made up of those who have a higher income, some argue that his crossover from
good to evil can represent and speak to those who deal with criminal justice. Another character that may appeal to the specific, wealthier,
demographic is Kylo Ren, the new villain in the franchise who supposedly has a fan base made up of males with a large income.

5. D - Spending Power
Star Wars has over 1.91 million Twitter followers found that the typical follower is a 46-year-old married male with children. He is financially well-
off, making between $75,000 and $124,000. This spending power demographic is highly noticed by Disney and so they create and price
merchandise that will be accessible to their audience.
For example, in comic book stores around the world you can purchase figurines of some of the characters, these can price somewhere between
£250-£350, this may appeal to some of the male demographic who have nothing to else they wish to spend their money on, this type of
merchandise is aimed more at the older audience as the figurines would be treated like collectors’ items, rather than the figurines you can buy in
the Disney store which are designed for the children to play with.
For the wealthier demographic merchandise such as $2000 Stormtrooper Costume can be purchased from some online sites. As well as watches
being sold for around $200-300, these products are something which would highly appeal to some of the wealthier demographic. However,
Disney will also take into account those within the demographic who either are children or have children, and will create merchandise such as
Chewbacca masks, Lightsabers, Puzzles etc. despite creating merchandise for the younger audience, the prices of the merchandise is still aimed
towards the wealthier demographic, with a lightsaber costing around £25, a talking R2-D2 costing £34.99 and notebooks costing £12.95. Despite
some of the prices being aimed toward the wealthier parts of the audience, the revenue for The Force Awakens still beat all other Star Wars
episodes’ revenue, by creating a total of $1,939,989,346, from DVD and Digital Sales, Toys, Books, Video Games, etc.