Qualitative Date - Secondary Research on the Horror/Slasher Genre

1. Secondary Research
By Emma-Jane Bernstein

2. This table shows us the films released in 2013
in the UK and Republic of Ireland. Within the
Horror genre, 37 films were released and the
biggest grossing and most popular film from
this genre was World War Z. Comparing this
to 2012 releases, the number of releases for
the horror genre has decreased by 8,
meaning that the horror genre is not as
popular as it was the year before. For our
trailer, this means we have to make it fit our
target market otherwise profit may be lost.
The horror genre is also at a plus point with
the amount of films that are released. As the
horror genre doesn’t have as many films
released per year, there is less competition
for directors and producers to have to deal
with.

4. In films that are classified 18, no themes are prohibited, unless they are illegal. Horror films are
allowed to contain material such as strong blood and gore, etc. As our film trailer contains a bit of
horror but also thriller, I believe the most appropriate certification would be a 15, because the
themes portrayed in our film may be inappropriate for viewers of a younger age. Also looking at
these different tables, the horror genre starts to appear in the 15+ category, meaning that the BBFC
determine that horror films are not appropriate for younger viewers, so for us to make our film
lower would not abide by what the BBFC say. Looking at the table above, you can clearly see that
films that are an 18 certificate find it hard to make a huge financial success because of their
reduced size in a potential audience.

5. This table is demonstrating how much money these larger companies make
compared to UK based companies and UK independent companies. The whole of
the Horror genre made 10% of the whole box office revenue in 2013. This is very
different compared to the Action genre which made about 60% of the box office
revenue in 2013. Within the horror genre, the Uk independent films only made 0.3%
of the revenue. This means for our film we need to have the right marketing
strategies and techniques, to encourage people to come and see our film, especially
the ones in our target audience.

6. Looking at the table, the dates when there is a big decline in UK cinema admissions coincide with the rise of
accessibility and popularity of TV in the 1960’s and 70’s. From the 1980’s there is a very slight rise in UK
cinema admissions. This links in the videos starting to arrive (home video). This could have been a hindrance
because people may have just bought videos and not gone to the cinema at all, but the fact is that, the more
people got more into wanting to see films, the more likely they were to go and see it in the cinema first
before buying it on video and it being a waste of money. The rise and fall of UK cinema admissions could also
link in with social problems that happened around the same time. People may have gone to the cinema to
escape work problems or escape the war around the 1940’s. Also the slight increase in UK cinema admissions
in the last 20 years could be due to the fact that going to the cinema now is a social activity, so many people
going, such as teenagers will bring more money, meaning more profit into the cinema, raising cinema
admissions.