There were 52 thriller films released in 2015, accounting for 6.9% of total films and 2.9% of total box office earnings that year. While thriller films are profitable, they are less popular than action films. Some of the most successful thriller films in 2015 were Taken 3, Mad Max: Fury Road, and Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation. These films were highly successful due to their large budgets, franchise popularity from previous films, star power, and appeal to broad audiences as hybrid genres. Younger audiences, especially males ages 15-24, tend to be the primary viewers of thriller films.

1. By Bailee Brooks
INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH

2. Overall there was 52 thriller films released
within the year of 2015. This means that
thriller films were 6.9% of the overall films
released and making up 2.9% of the income
for that year. The genre alone is highly
profitable within the film market however
appears to be less popular in comparison to
films such as action which generates a total
box office figure of £393.9 million. This
could be due to the fact many institution
companies chose to release action films as it is
usually known to have the widest audiences
and will generate them the most amount of
money for them.
HOW MANY THRILLER FILMS
WERE RELEASED IN 2015?
Source:
http://www.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org.u
k/files/downloads/bfi-genre-and-
classification-2016-06-30.pdf

3. Taken 3, Mad Max Fury Road, Mission:
Impossible -Rogue Nation, Fifty Shades Of
Grey, Fast and Furious 7 are all thriller films
in the top ranking for box office sales in 2015.
This shows that the thriller film genre is quite
popular within the pupil. Many of these films
are apart of franchises which means the
audience will have been built up from
previous films and gained the franchise more
popularity. E.g. Fast and Furious 7 has
multiple films first released in 2009 and still
continuing to the present day. Similarly all
these films are created by large institution
company meaning they will have larger sums
of money to spend on advertisement for the
films and a high budget for things such as
props, after effects etc. And finally all these
films seem to be hybrids which means they
will generate a larger audience as they will
appeal to more people.
WHICH THRILLER FILMS WERE MOST
SUCCESSFUL IN THE YEAR 2015 AND
WHY?
Source:
http://www.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org
.uk/files/downloads/bfi-top-films-
of-2015.pdf

4. Taken 3
WHICH THRILLER FILMS WERE MOST
SUCCESSFUL IN THE YEAR 2015 AND
WHY?
Within the table we can see one of the
most successful film of 2015 within the
thriller category was ‘ Taken 3’
Directed by ‘Oliver Megaton’ this filmed
reached over
$326 000 000. This budget is mostly likely
to be influenced by the large overall
budget of $48 million allowing
production to be a very high quality and
distribution particularly more effective.
Similarly this film would have generated
such a high profit due to previous films
released by the franchise as well as the use
of star appeal with actor ‘Liam Neeson’
thus further enticing audiences to watch
the film making it the most popular.

5. The Dark Knight
Rises
MOST SUCCESSFUL THRILLER
FILM
The dark knight rises (2012) directed by
Christopher Nolan is claimed to be one of
the best thriller films of all time. The box
office of this film shows the movie
generated $448 million in revenue in the US
alone, and over $100million worldwide. The
film has furthermore received high reviews
on film websites such as IMDb which rated
the film ‘8.5/10’ and Rotten tomatoes which
rated the film 87% which proves not only
box office success but also audience success

6. AUDIENCE CHARACTERISTICS-
AGE (TAKEN 3)
It is particularly hard to generate
statistics when it comes to audience
members and their age however the BFI
posts the data in a year book that can be
analysed for target audience research,
(this data may not be 100% accurate as it
is usually generalised) and my target
audience being those who enjoy thriller I
should find it useful to research what
ages enjoy thriller films the most . As we
can see overall 40% of the age 15-24
were viewing the film taken 3. This
shows that the film was popular with the
younger more teenage generations,
suggesting thriller films appeal to a
younger audience.
Source:
http://www.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.
org.uk/files/downloads/bfi-
statistical-yearbook-audiences-
2015-2016-08-25.pdf

7. Similarly, this film is also viewed at an
average of 32% by the age group of ‘15-
24 years’ bas the genre is also a thriller as
is ‘Taken 3’ this furthermore suggests that
the thriller is usually aimed at young adults
and teenagers which are suited to my
target audience. The starting age for this
product could be 15 as that may be what
the BBFC guidelines have set the thriller
genre to be, thus meaning the thriller must
be a more mature genre
AUDIENCE CHARACTERISTICS-
AGE (MAD MAX: FURY ROAD)
Source:
http://www.bfi.org.uk/sites/bf
i.org.uk/files/downloads/bfi-
statistical-yearbook-audiences-
2015-2016-08-25.pdf

8. AUDIENCE CHARACTERISTICS –
GENDER (MAD MAX: FURY ROAD)
As we can see, majority of the audience members that view this
production were male (71%) even though the main characters are
particularly equal genders. This suggests that the male gender enjoy the
thriller genre more than female, which is a pleasing outcome as our
production is particularly aimed at males and how they can defeat their
gender stereotyped

9. Within the statistical data within
the BFI website it claims that 29%
of the audience that viewed Taken
3 were of social class DE meaning
they are of the lower end of the
social classes. This means that
perhaps those who enjoy thriller
films are more likely to be of
lower classes. This is a negative to
me as my target audience is of
higher social class (C1 +) meaning
perhaps we may not get the views
we desire for our genre.
AUDIENCE CHARACTERISTICS-
SOCIAL CLASS (TAKEN 3)

10. Overall 41% of the audience that viewed Mad Max:
Fury Road were of C1 social class grading. This
shows that those of more upper class can enjoy
thriller films as well as those of lower, making it more
suited to my target audience who are of C1+
AUDIENCE CHARACTERISTICS-
SOCIAL CLASS (MAD MAX: FURY ROAD)

11. So, in conclusion I can see that thriller is moderately popular within the
thriller market however other genre’s eg action are more popular however this
is due to the fact this is more widely produced than other genres, Although
the audiences characteristics remain broad and varied. The release of hybrid
genres similarly make it harder to correlate any data to do with genre and how
they are viewed as they come under many categories and different audiences
will appeal to different genres.
SUMMARY