The document analyzes box office data and genre popularity for films released in the UK in 2014. It finds that thriller films like Gone Girl and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 were among the most popular that year. However, thrillers on average did not perform as well financially as other genres like action. The document also examines audience reception by age group, finding that thrillers are generally rated for older viewers and are less popular with teenagers. Gender data shows dramas appealing more to women while men prefer action and thriller genres. This information is used to inform the design of the author's thriller film opening to appeal to diverse audiences.

1. Using the British Film Industry’s (BFI)
website I collected photographic
clippings from the Industry Statistical
Yearbook as evidence to show the
thriller movies reception over the years
of film in the UK.
Firstly, I looked at the popularity of
particular genre, specifically the thriller genre in order to
conclude themes within popular thriller movies in which I’d
incorporate in my own thriller opening.
This is the box office results for the top 20 films released in
the UK and Republic of Ireland, 2014:
As seen above, the thriller films (according to the genre determined by
IMBD) most popularly liked (shown through box office sale) in 2014
were:
-‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay part 1’
-‘Gone Girl’
-‘The Imitation Game’
Which is a vastly different amount compared action genre:
-‘The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies’

2. -‘The Lego Movie’
-‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’
-‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay part 1’
-‘Guardians of the Galaxy’
-‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’
-‘How to Train Your dragon 2’
-‘The Amazing Spiderman 2’
-‘Gone Girl’
-‘Intersteller’
-‘Transformers: Age of Exinction’
-‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’
-‘Malicifent’
-’22 Jump Street’
This is a table of films released in the UK and Republic of Ireland by
genre, 2014 (ranked by averagewidestpoint of release)
This table proves how thrillers, on average didn’t do so well last year.
The genre as a whole on average grossed £58.5 million on boxoffice, the
seventh from top genre.
These tables below show the fluctuation of highest grossing films over
time. The firsttable shows statistics for the highest grossing films from
2001-1012 and thesecond shows statistics for UK qualifying films at the
UK box office 1989-2014.

3. Out of the movies included in these tables, the only thriller movies are:
‘Casino royale’
‘The Dark knight rises’

4. Secondly, I looked at audience’s reception to particular films. I wanted to
study variables within audiences (such as age) that alter the viewings of
films, especially what type of audiences watch thriller films. Such
information would allow my group to incorporate themes within these
thrillers that apply to the whole population, rather than gender or age
specific.
From this table, I can gather that the thriller genre is not a popular choice with the age group 7-
14. Films such as ‘One Direction: This is Us’ is in the documentary/music genre, ‘Wreck-it
Ralph’ is in the animation/comedy/adventure genres, ‘Despicable me 2’ is in the
animation/comedy/family genres, ‘Monsters University’ is in the animation/adventure/comedy,
‘The Croods’is in the animation/adventure/comedy, ‘Frozen’ is in the
animation/comedy/adventure genres, ‘Ozthe Great and Powerful’ is in the
adventure/family/fantasy genres and ‘Jack the Giant Slayer’ is in the adventure/fantasy genres.
From this information I can come to the conclusion that the most popular genre for age groups
7-14 is animation and adventure as these provide appropriate conventions for such audiences. I
can make the assumption that most thriller films are aged at 12, 15, 18 rather than PG/U/G due
to the genre conventions such as murder and violence. Consequently, our thriller opening does
not appeal to age groups 7-14 as our film incorporates aspects of gore and murder.

5. From this table, I can collect more information that will help me discover age groups
interested in the thriller genre. Films such as ‘Fast& Furious 6’ and ‘The Hunger Games:
Catching Fire’ are in the thriller genre however they are both featured in much more popular
genres. The action genre includes 7/10 of these films, making it the most popular for the 15-
24 age group. This information helps solidify the results found whilst researching specific
genre popularity, where I found that action was the most popular on the average for the
population. Surprisingly, only 2 of the featured 10 films are thrillers, making me believe that
the thriller genre, although somewhat appreciated by the ‘younger generation’, is not very
successfulwith those under 25. As there is around 50% of viewers for both featured thriller
genred films, I can come to the assumption that there is a popular confusion of the thriller
genre with action/adventure as they all tend to mix in well-known films.
The information gathered from this table may seem surprising and somewhat confusing, however it
can be said that the obvious interest in popular ‘childish’ films like ‘The Croods’and ‘Frozen’ is
due to the average age of parenthood being mid 20s and therefore parents frequently take their
young children to the cinema to view animated films. I concluded that these results should not be
accounted for as most 35-44 aged people aren’t particularly interested in animated films, but are in
fact more interested in the adventure genre. The most popular genre with these featured films is
adventure and comedy as 3/5 (for both genres) films are of this genre, with the thriller genre having
only one featured film ‘Gravity’. This particular thriller is a sub-genre of Sci-Fi, and in learning this
information, I noticed that it is not possible to include sci-fi elements in our thriller piece.

6. Using this information, I can gather that the age group 45-54 view a variety of different
genres, however thriller isn’t one of them. Genres suchas crime, comedy, drama, musical,
action, mystery, romance, biography, sci-fi, adventure and action were all genres featured in
the films above. The most popular genre was drama, with 6/10 films having that genre, a
close second is comedywhich had 5/10 featured films. Therefore, I can come to the
conclusion that the thriller genre isn’t widely viewed amongst the 45-54 aged UK population,
and that they prefer less thrill inducing, action-packed films. This information benefits our
group as it allows us to realise that the ‘older generation’ would like more dramatic story
developing rather than action scenes, which is why we have chosento start our opening quite
slow paced to build up anticipation for the tense action of the final scenes (which is required
in order to reach the younger viewing population).
The information gathered from this table is not surprising as it only shows a correlation in how
the drama and romance genres are viewed ultimately by the age groups above 45. However,
unlike the previous age group, the thriller film ‘Captain Phillips’ is incorporated in these results,
although it is only 1/7 featured films. In looking at the high percentage of this particular age
groups that watch films like ‘Quartet’ and ‘Philomena’, I can gather that the comedy/drama
genres are very popular. The information I can use out of this table suggests similarly to the age
group of 45-54, and I can come to the conclusion that the older generation enjoy drama rather
than fast-paced action.

7. The tables above show the how gender affects the genre viewed.
According to these results, the drama genre is most popular with females
whilst males prefer action. It seems that men like similar genres like
action, adventure, thriller whilst women prefer a variety of romance,
drama, musical. Upon analysing this information, our group would
ultimately like to appeal to both genders therefore we would incorporate
variations of the action and drama genre, with the opening wholely
thriller.