The document analyzes different movie genres and their box office performance to determine which genres are most profitable for filmmaking. It finds that horror/thriller films have the highest average annual box office gross of $161 million. Documentaries have very low production budgets but also earn very little and have little popularity or star power, making them the least profitable genre. The document provides examples like Paranormal Activity and Blair Witch Project to show how horror films can earn high returns.

2. To achieve an idea of how much film noir takes in at the box office each year I am looking
at the figures for drama and thriller genres as the Box Office does not class noir as a genre
– more of a mood.
Drama

3. Thriller

4. 1980-Present
Crime dramas and
thrillers that imitate or
bear similarities to the
'Film Noir' movies of
the 1940s and 1950s.

5. This table shows the US takings of the 5 most
profitable noir titles.
Brighton Rock – was actually produced in
2010 which shows that it is a neo-noir title.
By the statistics it was obviously very
popular and profitable. This because it was
a modern twist on a classic storyline. When
we made our film to ensure a good return
we are going to plan carefully giving it the
perfect styling of the era through the use of
iconography and camera techniques. Also
taking inspiration from classic noir films
such as the top 5 which can be seen 2 slides
ahead.

6. Famous noir producers responsible for producing some
classic iconic noir films of the era include..
• Warner Bros. – They Drive By Night (1940), The Maltese Falcon
(1941), High Sierra (1941), Mildred Pierce (1945), The Big Sleep
(1946), Dark Passage (1947), Possessed (1947), Key Largo (1948).
• Paramount – Among The Living (1941), This Gun For Hire
(1942), Double Indemnity (1944), The Blue Dahlia (1946), Calcutta
(1947), Sunset Boulevard (1950), Detective Story (1951).
• 20th Century Fox – I Wake Up Screaming (1951), Laura
(1944), Fallen Angel (1945), Panic In The Streets (1950).
• RKO – Stranger On The Third Floor (1940), Murder My Sweet
(1944), Cornered (1945), Deadline At Dawn (1946), Out Of The Past
(1947).

9. • Noir has never really been classed as a genre, it is more
popularly known as a thriller or action. The most popular
thriller was released in 1997, Titanic. It sold a dramatically
high number of copies that came to a cost of
$1,016,477,150. One of the most common films that are
known to be a film noir is Se7en. Within one year of it
being released it sold copies that came up to a massive
expense of $87,046,142.
• Below shows a copy of the average number of tickets sold
per year and the percentage of market share from 1995 to
2011 according to statistics from The Numbers website.
http://www.the-
numbers.com/market/Genres/Suspense.php

10. As we can see, the year that sold the most tickets was in 1998, this is the time
where thrillers became quite popular and films such as Titanic, The Jackal and
The Gingerbread man were released, these films of which are still popular
and well known today, Titanic being the most popular and learned about in
schools. There was about 180,000,000 tickets sold in that year; it is also the
year that had the highest percentage of market share, at about 12%. 2003
shows the year that sold the least number of thriller tickets. This could be
because at this time more modern technology and effects begun to be
used, some of which spoilt many movies and made films seem unreal and
gives less of an adrenaline rush when watching it, spoiling the movie. It is also
the year that had the lowest market share, of about 4%.

11. • On boxofficemojo.com they class film noir as an individual genre and show that the most popular noir film
is Sin City which was released on 1st April 2005. When being made its production budget was $40million.
The film became so popular to viewers that its lifetime gross has came to a staggering cost of
$74,103,820, in theatres it sold 3,230 tickets. Of all the 64 most popular noir films, the total lifetime gross
comes to $586,250,421. Below shows the top 10 film noir films according to www.boxofficemojo. com
As you can see from the image above of
the top 10 most popular film noir
movies, there is a range of some of the
well known films such as L.A
Confidential and Against All Odds.
Also, studios such as Warner Brothers
(WB) are one of the most common
studios and so movies that they
promote will then be shown more and
become more popular and common to
the human eye.

12. However as you can
see here with the 10
least popular film noir
films, none of the film
titles are very
popular, and if you
look at the studio that
these films are
promoted by, not
many of them are that
popular and well
known, for example
Roxie don’t promote
many movies in the
film noir genre so
therefore noir films
that are promoted by
Roxie wont be as
popular as the more
common films that
they help promote.

13. After looking at the top 4 movie genres it has shown that from most popular to least popular the
top 4 movie genres are:
• Horrors/Thrillers
• Action Adventure
• Drama, Romance and Comedies
• Documentries
Every year this genre has a box office gross of around $161,830,890. The increase in
popularity of box office purchases lately since 2007 is because of the hit thriller
movies of the Paranormal Activity series’. The first of the 3 was made for $15,000. The
Blair Witch Project was the second most famous horror/thriller movie which brought
20,591% return share to the studio. The least popular horror/thriller film was Evil
Dead, giving the studio a 3,820% return. Horror/thrillers are also the most popular film
genres for bringing in 5* ratings

15. Its obvious documentaries aren’t going to be the best of film genres for the
simple fact that they don’t include any of the best actors, actresses, directors
or producers and an almost extinct minute amount of effects. To make a
documentary can cost as little as the tiniest fraction of what it would cost to
make a Hollywood film. An example of a documentary that is fairly popular is
Tarnation, pieced together from the clips the filmmaker had recorded
throughout his life and costing just $218. However that budget the filmmaker
had doesn’t effect the marketing, distributing and number of copies sold. Still
using that amount as an estimate of what the film cost to create, it brought
back 266,416.97% of its ROI. Obviously because of the little popularity of
actors, budget of making the film and the insight of an unknown persons
life, makes it obvious that documentaries such as these will be at the bottom
of the most profitable genre list.